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LIBRARY JF CO^IGRESS. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



iNTJiH Folia Fructds. — Library Motto of James A. Garjield. 



GARFIELD'S WORDS 



SUGGESTIVE PASSAGES FROM 



THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WRITINGS 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 



COMPILED BY 

WILLIAM RALSTON BALCIL 




•ry 
BOSTON:^^^^^ 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. 

1881. 




1 vicr ^^ ; \m 



Copyright, 1881, 
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 

All rights reserved. 






The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
Electrotyped and Printed by II. 0. Houghton & Co. 



To 

TIIE MANY THOUSAND MEN AND WOMEN OF THIS REPUBLIC 

-WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN MABE BETTER AND NOBLER 
BY THE MARTYRDOM OP 

JAMES A. GARFIELD, 

JTIn's Folume 

IS AFFECTION AXJiLi' iJ ii 1> 10 A T ED. 



PREFACE. 



The attention paid in this country to the litera- 
ture of Congress and the literature of the stump is 
trifling. This, possibly, is excusable, as much of it 
is but the sawdust of debate, the dry chips that 
some prosy orator hews from the block of a tire- 
some topic. Literary brilliancies are seldom ex- 
pected from political successes. In consequence 
much that is valuable, powerful, and eloquent of 
national life, appearing in speeches that are the ex- 
ception to the rule, is missed by the majority. 

The reader will, probably, read with surprise — 
not being aware of their existence — the clever, 
philosophical, manly, and patriotic sayings that are 
printed in the following pages. They are com- 
piled from the public utterances and the private 
letters of our late President. It is indeed remark- 
able how thickly his speeches and letters are stud- 
ded with jewels of utterance. 

No apology is presented for offering this little 



VI PREFACE. 

volume to the public, and, in the light of the events 
that have followed the black 2d of July, none is 
needed. The compiler has made no great effort at 
elaborate classification. The selections have been 
arranged so as to bear a certain relation of subject, 
and such references as were deemed necessary have 
been added. The index to subjects will permit of 
quick search for any desired theme. 

The manly beauty, the wit and appreciable wis- 
dom of much that President Garfield uttered, can- 
not but win its way to an abiding place in the 
hearts of the American people, and serve to bring 
them into closer relation with the admirable sen- 
timents of the man who, elected to the highest 
post of honor in this Republic, died bravely in the 
discharge of the trusts committed to his hands. 

William Ralston Balch. 
Philadelphia, the Fall of 1881. 



I will pick tip a few straws here and there over the broad 
field and will ask you afeia moments to look at them. 

Garfield at Cleveland, October 11, 1879. 



MEMOIE. 



To tell the story of James Abram Garfield's life 
is to recite the trials and triumphs of the last 
twenty years of American history, so intimately 
was his life twined with that of the nation. Such 
a story will not be attempted here. Instead, will 
be given a few notes, which will recall to readers 
the series of grand influences that encircled him 
and which had so much to do with shaping his 
brave words. 

He was born at Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, 
on November 9, 1831, and had the advantage in 
his veins of a sound strain of blood. Abram Gar- 
field, his father, was of Welsh descent, an ancestor, 
Edward Garfield, having renounced his home in 
Chester (Wales), to join great Governor Win- 
throp's Company in their search for land and living 
in the New World. The name Garfield — it is to 
be found to-day in Wales under the earlier form of 
Gaerfili, and in Massachusetts as Gaerfield — means, 
in Anglo-Saxon, " field-watch." Edward Garfield 
settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, where he and 
some of his descendants are buried. One of these. 



8 MEMOIR. 

Solomon Garfield, was the father of Abram Gar- 
field and the grandfather of James Abram. Abram 
was named for an uncle Abram, who was among the 
foremost to repulse the British assault on Concord 
Brido-e. After the assault, he joined Judge Hoar 
in drawing up a deposition for use by the Conti- 
nental Congress, in proving that the British govern- 
ment was the aggressor and began the war which 
resulted in our independence. Abram Garfield's 
wife, the mother of the President, bore the historic 
name of Ballou and was the sixth in descent from 
Maturin Ballou, who fled to this country on the 
revocation of the edict of Nantes, and found refuge 
in Rhode Island. Eliza Ballou, for such was her 
name, was married in 1819. All the best years of 
her life were passed in the wilderness, framed in 
the narrow boundaries of border civilization. Her 
husband died in 1833, and left upon her hands the 
raising of four children and the maintaining the 
fight for existence which from the first had been bit- 
ter. She bent herself bravely to the task, and her 
determination, patience, and perseverance were the 
first lessons of life James Garfield ever had. In 
the poverty and privation of life at the little home- 
stead he fully shared. As soon as he felt him- 
self able he struck for independence, and took the 
position of a driver on the canal boat Evening Star. 
From his career on the canal the ague cut him off. 
At the usual age he entered tlie district school. 
Here he easily stood at the head of his class, and by 



MEMOIR. I) 

the time he was eighteen, he was possessed of all 
the school could teach iiim. He next attended for 
three terms the Geauga Seminar}^ at Chester, Ohio. 
While studying there he paid his way with the 
earnings of carpentering, at which he worked early 
and late, and successfully. In 1851 he entered the 
I^clectic Institute, now Hiram College, at Hiram, 
Ohio, where he prepared for college. A kind word 
from the then President, Mark Hopkins, fixed Gar- 
field's choice upon Williams College, at Williams- 
town, Massachusetts, and from there he graduated 
with the highest honors of his class in 1856. In 
seven years he had covered all the ground that lay 
between an old-fashioned district school and a high- 
class New England College. He had accomplished 
even more. He had taught school, he had worked 
at his carpenter's trade, and for two years while 
carrying on his studies at Pliram, he had occupied 
worthily a teacher's position. In all this learning 
and teaching he was eminently successful. Fate, 
it seemed, was shaping his life in the pitiless lines 
of a public educator. 

On his return to Hiram from Williams, he was 
made instructor hi Ancient Languages, a post he 
was not allowed to occupy long, as in less than a 
year he was chosen principal. He proved himself 
an educator of strong power and popularity. In 
1858 he was married to Lucretia Rudolph, the 
grand-niece of Michel, Duke of Elchingen, Marshal 
Ney. About this time he began to think of useful- 



10 MEMOIR. 

ness in another field, that of tlie law. The break- 
ing out of the civil war stopped progress in this 
direction, and sw^pt him away to the front as lieu- 
tenant-colonel of the 42d Ohio Volunteers. His 
first oi)erations in the fall of 1861, on being pro- 
moted to the colonelcy, were directed against Gen- 
eral Humphrey Marshall, then occupying the Big 
Sandy Valley of Kentucky. For this and other 
able operations he was made a brigadier-general on 
January 10, 1862. Subsequently he commanded a 
brigade at Shiloh, was chosen chief of staff by 
Rosecrans, and was with George H. Thomas dur- 
ing the awful struggle at Chickamauga. For his 
" gallant and meritorious service " on this occasion 
he was made a major-general. 

Quite early Garfield manifested an interest in 
politics. He attended his first political meeting 
during the Harrison campaign, though appearing 
more as a spectator than a participant. The Kan- 
sas-Nebraska difficulty was probably the first politi- 
cal question in which he interested himself, and his 
political career opened actively in 1857, when he 
took the stump, and did effective service for his 
party. Two years later he was elected a member 
of the Ohio Senate, taking his seat from Portage 
and Summit counties, his strong anti-slavery views 
having proved the credentials of his election. This 
honor he resigned on accepting a regiment. While 
at the front, in 1862, his friends at home chose him 
to represent the IDth Ohio Congressional District, 



MEMOIR. 11 

SO long spoken for by Jionest, able Joshua R. Gicl- 
diiigs. By the advice of President Lincoln and 
General Rosecrans, he accepted the honor and took 
his seat — the youngest member of Congress — on 
December 5, 18G3, resigning from the army on the 
same day. To this body he was nine times succes- 
sively elected, remaining a member until the close 
of the first session of the Forty-Sixth Congress, in 
the early summer of 1880. In January of that 
year he was chosen by the legislature of Ohio, to 
succeed Allen G. Thurman for the six years end- 
ing March 4, 1887. Ou June 10th following he 
received at Chicago, at the liands of the National 
Republican Convention, — of which he w^as a mem- 
ber, — the nomination to the Presidency. Novem- 
ber 2d he was elected ; March 4, 1881, he was in- 
augurated ; July 2d he was struck down by a cow- 
ardly assassin, and on September 19 th, at El heron, 
New Jersey, he died, the regretted of the world. 

His political career was one unbroken service to 
his country. He never made a speech that was 
not noticeable for honesty of jDurpose, earnestness 
of vision, soundness of judgment, unimpeachable 
logic, and overwhelming evidence, while framed in 
beautiful words, and animated by complete charity 
and manly courtesy. Among his associates during 
his term in Congress, William Pitt Fessenden, Lot 
M. Morrill, John P. Hale of New Hampshire, 
Hannibal Hamlin, Charles Sumner and Henry Wil- 
son, Oliver P. Morton, Anthony, Reverdy Johnson, 



12 MEMOIR. 

bluff Ben AVade, John Sherman, Chandler, Blaine, 
Hill, Conkling, Logan, and others were members of 
the Senate, while in the House were E. B. Wash- 
burne, " the watch-dog of the Treasury ; " Thaddeus 
Stevens, Schenck, Boutwell, Fenton, Henry Win- 
ter Davis, Allison, Kasson, of Iowa, Dawes, John 
A. Bingham, English of Connecticut, Pendleton of 
Ohio, Randall, George W. Julian, Fernando Wood, 
Judge Kelley, Frye, Hale, Hoar, Blair of New 
Hampshire, and many another man of brains. And 
yet no one of these can show so bright a page of 
service to the country as James A. Garfield. No 
one of these stamped his own likeness so deeply 
upon the Mosaic of national legislation of the past 
twenty years. During that period hardly one great 
measure of national importance was passed without 
the impress of the Garfield medallion. His ser- 
vice on most of the very important committees was 
continuous and untiring. He was either father or 
god-father to every sound financial measure origi- 
nating during his career in Congress. He was the 
determined enemy of all forms of inflation, repudia- 
tion, and payment of just debts by jugglery. Slavery 
found in him a foe of magnificent proportions, the 
black man a friend of great value. Freedom and 
the inviolability of the Constitution were with him 
every -day texts. The doctrine of State sovereignty 
he attacked with bitter vehemence whenever it 
showed its head. The broadening of the scope 
and effect of education was a cherished hobby of 



3IEM01R. 13 

his, wliich he never lost an opportunity of riding 
to advantage. Protection was uphehi, believed in, 
and defended. The sacredness of the public faith 
was a grand gospel. While believing that the 
South was '-forever and forever wrong" on the 
great question that tore the nation in two, yet no 
Northern man forgave more quickly or more fully 
than he. He had no sympathy with the " blo;idy- 
shirt " antics of his party, and did what he could to 
condemn them. He never for an instant lost sight 
of his country, its honor, its welfare, or its citizens, 
and he never advanced any but enlightened and 
progressive principles. A profound student of 
statesmanship, he easily became the leader of the 
House, no less than the leader of his party. Bril- 
liant in debate and oration, no member ever sur- 
passed him in speech and argument, that are as 
well worth reading to-day as on the day of their 
delivery. Though a man of intense convictions, 
stating them in thunders of impassioned words, 
never was a political debater more courteous to his 
opponent, more mindful of the amenities of the 
forum, more generous in construing the utterances 
of those who differed with him. In marshaling 
evidence against the Democratic policy upon any 
measure, he would always quote from Democratic 
papers or Democratic orators, very seldom from 
the press and politicians of his own party. Pre- 
eminently a constructive statesman, he endowed his 
speeches with a practical quality that made them 



14 MEMOIR. 

immediately available for the principles and meth- 
ods under discussion ; and this, too, when the amount 
of work that he accomplished was almost incredi- 
ble. Besides serving on the Military Committee 
— then the most important and the busiest of all 
committees — of the House during the thirty-eighth 
Congress, 1863-65, he delivered speeches on the 
following: "Deficiency bill," "Bill to continue 
bounties," " Revenue bill," " Confiscation," " Con- 
scription bill," " Bill to revive grade of Lieutenant- 
General," " Resolution of thanks to General 
Thomas," " Sale of surplus gold," " Relating to 
enlistments in the Southern States," " Bill to droj) 
unemployed general officers," " New Jersey rail- 
road bill," "Currency bill," "The state of the 
Union, in reply to Mr. Long," " The expulsion of 
Mr. Long," " A correspondence with the Rebels," 
" Revenue bill (No. 405)," " The inquiry in rela- 
tion to the Treasury Department," " The Army 
appropriation bill," " Pennsylvania war claims," 
" The bankrupt bill," " Repeal of fugitive slave 
law," " Bill to provide for claims for rebellion 
losses." And no one of these but what was most 
carefully and fully prepared. And from this be- 
ginning the stream of his activity widened into a 
vast sea. 

As a lawyer his career was not so brilliant, but if 
we may accept the suggestion of the cases that he 
argued, it was because his political duties left him 
but little time for the law. And this is still more 



MEMOIR. 15 

patent when it is recollected that, with the excep- 
tion of 1868 and 1880, he bore a conspicuous part 
in the yearly political canvass on the stump. Ohio, 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, 
and Missouri, record with gratitude his powers in 
a canvass. He was the most serious and the most 
instructive man on the stump in the Republic. As 
a lawyer he was logical, clear, careful, never slight- 
ing anything or anybody, and always confirmed in 
the justice of his cause. 

His scholar's career, his literary activity, his 
style, the training and habits of his mind are, per- 
haps, at this moment of the greatest interest. The 
growth of his intellect began with the unsurpassed 
English of the Bible, much of which he learned 
at his mother's knee. This was the grounding of 
that upright Christian career which he so earnestly 
entered upon and so fearlessly followed, of that 
profound reverence for Christian teachings, which 
was afterwards strengthened and confirmed by his 
preaching in the pulpits of his sect. The next 
mental development was his love of freedom and 
his ambition to be sometldng in the world, brought 
out by the bristling pages of " The Pirate's Own 
Book," Weems's " Marion," border histories, and 
Grimshaw's " Napoleon," which also stirred his 
soldier's spirit, volumes that over and over again 
aroused his ready enthusiasm. To these succeeded 
the dry sentences of Kirkham's Grammar, then, 



16 MEMOIR. 

book-keeping, penmanship, and elocution. The 
next refining influences upon his mind were the 
able ministrations of his teacher at Hiram, Miss 
Almeda A. Bootli, the Margaret Fuller of the West. 
Xenophon's "Anabasis," the Pastorals of Virgil, 
the Georgics and Bucolics entire, Demosthenes on 
the Crown, and the lirst six books of Homer, ac- 
companied by a thorough drill in Latin and Greek 
grammar, preceded his entrance at college. In 
these studies he was very thorough, at all times 
examining and perusing collateral works to the 
particular text book upon which he was engaged. 

On his arrival at Williamstown he found a great 
prize, — a good library. His absorption in the dowble 
work of teaching and fitting himself for college, 
had hitherto left him little time for general reading, 
and the library opened a new world of profit and 
delight. He had never read a line of Shakespeare, 
save a few extracts in the school-readers. From 
the whole range of fiction he had voluntarily shut 
himself off at eighteen, when he joined the church, 
having serious views of the business of life and im- 
bibing the notion — then almost universal among 
religious people in the country districts of the 
West — that novel-reading was a waste of time, 
and therefore a simple, worldly sort of intellectual 
amusement. Turned loose in the college library, 
he began uith Shakespea:e, which he devoured 
" with the divine hunger of genius " from cover 
to cover. Then he went to English history and to 



MEMOIR. 17 

the English poets. Tennyson pleased him best. In 
Charles Kingsley's " Alton Locke " and " Yeast " he 
found congenial spirits. Longfellow's " Hiawatha " 
produced a lasting impression. At the end of six 
months this serious reading produced intellectual 
dyspepsia, his mind could not assimilate the food 
fed to it, it refused to be bound down to the printed 
page. lie therefore revised his notions of fiction, 
and came to the conclusion that romance is as 
valuable a part of a mental repast as salad of a 
dinner. In consequence he prescribed for himself 
one novel a month, and on this medicine his mind 
speed ily recovered its elasticit3^ Cooper's " Leather- 
stocking Tales " were the first novels he read, 
after these Sir Walter Scott. Then an English 
classmate introduced him to Dickens and Thack- 
eray, and he roared with laughter over Mr. Bum- 
ble. During this course of reading he made notes 
of everything he did not clearly understand, such 
as historical references, mythological allusions, 
technical terms, etc. These notes he would take 
time to look up afterward, in the library, so as to 
leave nothing obscure concerning the books he ab- 
sorbed. The ground his mind traversed he care- 
fully cleared and plowed before leaving it for fresh 
fields. 

Garfield studied L^tin and Greek, and took up 
German as an elective study. One year completed 
his classical studies. German he carried on suc- 
cessfully, until he could read Goethe and Schiller 
2 



18 MEMOIR. 

readily and acquired considerable fluency in the 
conversational use of that language. The influ- 
ence of the mind and character of Dr. Hopkins 
was seriously felt in shaping the direction of 
his thoughts and views of life. He repeatedly 
said that the good president rose like a sun before 
him and enlightened his whole mental and moral 
nature. . His preaching and teaching were a con- 
stant inspiration of the young Ohio student, and he 
became the centre of his college life, the object of 
his hero worship. In all the college literary work 
Garfield joined enthusiastically. He was a mem- 
ber, and one year, 1855-6, president of the Philolo- 
gian Society. He contributed constantly to " The 
Williams Quarterly." This gave him an advan- 
tageous journalistic experience and brouglU him 
into closer relations with the men around him. 
One year Garfield formed one of the corps of edi- 
tors, and during this corniection with it he numbered 
among his contributors Professor Chadbourne, Hor- 
ace E. Scudder, G. B. Manly, S. G. W. Benjamin, 
J. Gilfillan, W. R. Dimmock, John Savery, and 
W. 8. Hopkins, some of whom survive to-day to a 
more distinguished fame than the pages of " The 
Williams Quarterly." 

Garfield graduated with the class honor in met- 
aphysics, reading an essay on "Matter and Spirit, 
the Seen and Unseen." It ir, singular how at dif- 
ferent times in the course of nis education, he was 
thought to have a special aptitude for some parti c- 



MEMOIR. 



19 



ular line of mental work, and how at another period 
his talents were ns pronounced in some other line. 
First it was mathematics, then classics, then rhet- 
oric, and finally metaphysics. The reason of all this 
lay in his remarkably vigorous and well-rounded 
bmin, capable of effective work in any direction. 
His studies had breadth. He was always busy, yet 
never a recluse or bookish fellow. His studies 
were also noticeable for their evenness. He had 
large capacity and extreme diligence, and he applied 
both to any subject that he undertook. "What he 
did was accomplished by hard work. There was 
nothing spasmodic, but ever a steady, healthy, on- 
ward, upward progress. This judgment on his life 
then, has been equally applicable at all times smce 

His intense love of books never left him. Ail 
through his congressional career we catch glimpses 
of his" literary life, his turning aside, lest his great 
dread should be accomplished of "falling into a rut 
and becoming a fossil." Though he might not 
have admitted it, there was little danger ot such a 
relaDse. In a letter to an intimate friend, he says, 
und^r date of July 8, 1875 : " I am taking advan- 
tacre of this enforced leisure to do a good deal ot 
reading. Since I was taken sick I have read the 
followincy : Sherman's two volumes ; Leland's^' Eng- 
lish Gypsies; ' George Borrow's 'Gypsies of Spam;^ 
Borrow's ' Rommany Rye ; ' Tennyson's 'Mary; 
seven volumes of Froude's England; several plays 
of Shakespeare, and have made some progress in a 



20 MEMOIR 

new book, which T think you will be glad to see, 
' The History of the English People/ by Professor 
Green, of Oxford, in one volume." 

His interest in books was always fresh and vigor- 
ous. Brief verdicts on much of his reading are re- 
corded in his correspondence. The " Shakespeare 
Tales " by Charles and Mary Lamb afforded him 
a great deal of pleasure. Walter Savage Laudor's 
*' Pericles and Aspasia " he found to be one of the 
finest things he ever read, furnishing as it does in a 
vivid and beautiful stylo " the best obtainable sum- 
mary of the spirit and character of Greek history, 
politics, philosophy, and literature." Reclus's " Phys- 
ical Geography " he deemed a remarkable book, and 
" Ten Great Religions," by James Freeman Clarke, 
he read several times, the perusals leadiug him to 
believe he had taken too narrow a view of the sub- 
ject of religion. During the winter of 1874-75 he 
made a thorough study of Goethe and his epoch, 
and sought to build up in his mind a picture of the 
state of literature and art in Europe at the period 
when Goethe began to work, and the state of the 
same when he died. After grouping the facts in 
order, he wrote out a sketch, as was his custom in 
regard to his reading, of the impressions produced 
upon his mind. It was this sort of work that per- 
mitted his literary growth to keep pace with his 
political power, and made him eventually the scholar 
of the White Plouse. I will venture on the read- 
er's patience, a private letter which will still further 



MEMOIR. 21 

illustrate how consistently President Garfield kept 
pace with himself. It touches on his great interest 
in Horace, 

" Washington, D. C, December 16, 1871. 

" Dear Professor : Before I am wholly over- 
whelmed with the very arduous and long-continue^l 
work which this winter's session will impose upon 
me, I will take the time to write you a long, and 
I hope not an uninteresting letter on a subject to 
which I have given some attention, from time to 
time, during the last few years. 

"Since I entered public life, I have constantly 
aimed to find a little time to keep alive the spirit 
of my classical studies, and to resist that constant 
tendency, which all public men feel, to grow rusty 
in literary studies, and particularly in the classical 
studies. I have thought it better to select some 
one lino of classical reading, and, if possible, do a 
little work on it each day. For this winter, I am 
determined to review such parts of the Odes of 
Horace as I may be able to reach. And, as pre- 
liminary to that work, I have begun by reading up 
the bibliography of Horace. 

" The Congressional Library is very rich in ma- 
terials for this study, and I am amazed to find how 
deep and universal has been the impress left on 
the cultivated mind of the world by Horace's writ- 
ings. 

" In a French volume before me, entitled ' Edi- 



22 MEMOIR. 

tion Polyglotte,' M. Monfalcon, Paris, 1834, in 
which the Latin text and translations into Span- 
ish, Italian, French, English, and German are 
given, I find a catalogue of the editions of Horace 
published in each year from the date of the inven- 
tion of printing down to 1833. This remnrkable 
c italogue of editions fills seventy quarto columns of 
Monfalcon's book. Besides this Polyglot edition, 
there are lying on my table, for reference, two 
thick volumes made up wholly of comments on 
Horace (the body of the text being wholly omitted), 
by Lambin, a great French scholar, who lived two 
hundred years ago; also two thick volumes by 
Orelli, the Swiss scholar, who died in 1850 ; also 
three volumes of the Delphin Horace, edited by 
Valpy, the English scholar. These form but a 
small part of the stores of Horatian literature which 
our library contains ; but these facts refer rather 
to the bibliography of Horace, and arc aside from 
the particular point I have in view in this letter. 

" I have observed, in looking over the works on 
Horace, that a line of thought has been pursued by 
scholars and antiquarians quite analogous to that 
pursued by scientific men in forecasting — I might 
almost say discovering — facts by induction from 
general principles. Let mc illustrate this. You 
remember the familiar illustration of it in the case 
of Leverrier, who found a perturbation in the 
movements of some of the planets of the solar sys- 
tem, and, after havinsf established the character 



MEMOIR. 23 

and extent of that perturbation, declared that there 
must be an unknown planet of a certain size in a 
certain quarter of the heavens, whose presence 
would account for the perturbation ; and finally, 
by pointing the telescope to that quarter of tho 
heavens, the predicted planet was found. 

" A recent fact may afford a still further instruc- 
tive illustration of the same principle. Two weeks 
ago to-day, Professor Agassiz, on the eve of de- 
parture for South America on a voyage of scientific 
discovery, addressed a letter to Professor Peirce, of 
the United States Coast Survey, in which he pre- 
dicts with great particularity what classes of marine 
animals he expects to find in the deep-sea sound- 
ings of the southern hemisphere ; what disposition 
of bowlders, the character and direction of glacial 
grooviiigs, he expects to find in the southern conti- 
nent. The Professor has so fully committed him- 
self that the result of the expedition must be a 
great triumph or a great failure for him. 

" Now, quite analogous to these researches in the 
field of science has been the process by which 
scholars have discovered the long-lost location of 
the country residence of Horace. Its site, and al- 
most its existence, were forgotten during the cen- 
turies of darkness which the Middle Ages brouglit 
upon Europe ; and it was only after the revival of 
learning that men began to inquire for the old 
shrines and homes of tho ancient Greeks and Ro- 
mans. For a long time the site of the country 



24 MEMOIR. 

home of Horace was merely a matter of conjecture, 
and scores of theories were advanced in regard to 
it. I have now before me the work which was, I 
beh'eve, the first thorough and ehiboratc attempt to 
apply the scientific piocess to the discovery of the 
site of the villa of Horace. It is in three volumes, 
of about five hundred pages each, and was written 
at Rome in 17G6-67 by the Abbe Bertrand Cap- 
martin de Chaupy, a French ecclesiastic, who about 
that time spent several years in Rome, and subse- 
quently, at the time of the French Revolution, fled 
to Italy, partly for safety and partly to gratify his 
love of classical study. 

" I have run hastily over these volumes, and will 
give you a brief statement of the scope and char- 
acter of the argument. The first volume lays down 
the method by which we should proceed in finding 
the location of the Iloratian villa. In following 
out this method, he brings together all the refer- 
ences made to it, directly or indirectly, in the works 
of Horace, and many other similar references from 
many other contemporary authorities and authors 
of the next succeeding period. From these ele- 
ments he sets forth in general terms the features 
that any proposed site must possess in order to be 
trusted as the real place. 

" In his second volume he applies the results of 
the first volume to all the localities that have been 
proposed as the site, and reaches the conclusion 
that none of them will stand the test. 



MEMOIR. 25 

"In the third volume he traces the history of the 
changes that swept over the couiitry in the neigh- 
borhood of Rome, the devastations and rebuildings, 
the decays and rec(jnstrnction of cities and villas, 
and finally directs all his tests to one point, which 
he airirms. a priori, must he the very location. 

" This investigation leads him to the conclusion 
that the country home of Horace was situated 
among the Sabine Mountains, a few miles above 
Tivoli, upon the little river Digence, between the 
mountains Lucretile and Ustica on one side and the 
village of Mantella on the other, and not far from 
Varia, which was a little village on the Anio, and 
is now the hamlet of Vario. 

" Such were the conclusions drawn by the Abbe 
from his elaborate investigation. Subsequent ex- 
plorations have, I believe, m the main confirmed 
the correctness of his conclusions. 

"In a London edition of Horace, of 1849, by the 
Rev. Henry Hart Milman, there is printed a letter 
by G. Dennis, written, as its author believes, near 
ths very spot where Horace wrote most of his odes. 
The letter is a most charming one, full of enthusi- 
asm for the poet and his w^orks, and gives a delight- 
ful description of the country and its surroundings. 

" Did I not know that I lack the time and you the 
patience, I should be tempted to send the whole 
letter ; but, when you visit us in Washington, as I 
hope you will do some time, you must not fail to 
read it. I hope I may not have distressed you with 
the length of this letter. 



26 MEMOIR. 

" My children are nearly recovered from scarlet 
fever. All the family are now well, and join mc 
in kindest regards to Mrs. Demmon and yourself. 
" Very truly yours, 

" J. A. Garfield. 

"Profesi?or I. N. Demmon, Hiram, 
Portarje County, Ohio.'" 

Such constant study had naturally a strong influ= 
ence on his utterances, an influence unquestionably 
good. These utterances are never dry. You can- 
not read a dozen sentences anywhere, not even in 
his annual " budget " speeches, and not find some 
profound idea tliat is all human in its interest. His 
animal spirits, his extreme cheerfulness, his gentle- 
ness and courtesy, threw an indescribable charm into 
his speeches, and won him a more patient hearing 
than was accorded his brother Congressmen. When 
he rose talking ceased, as in days before the war, 
w^hen Peyton or Wise asked the time und atten- 
tion of the House. Ho possessed boldness of 
imagery, picturesqueness of illustration, logical 
analysis, unbounded patriotism developed by his- 
tory and the hard facts of 1861, large powers of 
observation, poetry, respect for men, an ardent 
admiration for the Union and the Constitution, 
and a supreme faith in his Creator. The char- 
acter of his utterances is largely prophetic ; what 
he said of others almost invariably applies with 
greater force to himself. In delivery he was sym- 
pathetic and powerful, and never failed to win the 



MEMOIR. 27 

respect and applause of his audience. He never 
delivered a bad speech or a dull one ; it is doubtful 
if he knew how. Pie leaves no one behind him in 
our halls of legislation who is completely worthy to 
lift the mantle he has relinquished. In the history 
of the American Congress, Garfield's character and 
ability are unique. 

His death was the completed majesty of his life, 
— a death that has redounded to the welfare of the 
American nation, that prompts a broader charity, 
a greater love, a profounder faith among all classes 
of Americans. The President was more to us in 
dying than in living. He has harmonized and 
united the American people far better than the 
most brilliant administration could have done ; he 
has forced us to forget, as of old he ever strove to 
do, our pettiness and our selfishness in the common 
outburst of a great emotion. So, cheerfully and 
well, he served us to the end, bravely, manfully, 
uncomplainingly taking his part in 

"The direst tragedy that ever challeno;ed wonder." 



GAEFIELD^S WOEDS. 



PART I. — MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS. 

The selections that follow under this head relate to a variety 
of subjects, in the main, other than of purely patriotic or political 
import. 



GARFIELD'S CREED. 
Its Corner Stone. 

1. I would rather be beaten in Right than 
succeed in Wrong. 

A Principle. 

2. There are some things I am afraid of, 
and I confess it in this great presence : I am 
afi-aid to do a mean thing. 

Speech at Ckveland, Oct. 11, 1879. 
Reverence for Boys. 

3. I feel a profounder reverence for a boy 
than for a man. I never meet a ragged boy 
in the street without feeling that I may owe 



30 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

bim a salute, for I know not what possibili- 
ties may be buttoned up under bis coat. 

The Shriveled Time of Life. 

4. You and I are now nearly in middle 
age, and have not yet become soured and 
sliriveled with tlie wear and tear of life. Let 
us pray to be delivered from that condition 
where life and nature have no fresh, sweet 
sensations for us. 

Private Letter to Mr. Hinsdale, Dec. 31, 1872. 
Uprightness. 

6. It is not enough for one to know that 
his heart and motives have been pure and 
true, if he is not sure but tliat good men here 
and there, who do not know him, will set him 
down among the lowest men of doubtful mo- 
rality. Ibid. 

Garfield's Effort in PubUc Life. 

6. I have always said that my whole 
public life was an experiment to determine 
whether an intelligent people would sustain 
a man in acting sensibly on each proposition 
that arose, and in doing nothing for mere 
show or for demagogical effect. I do not now 
remember that I ever cast a vote of that lat- 
ter sort. Private Letter, April 4, 1873. 



GARFIELD'S CREED. 31 

A Radical, not a Fool. 

7. I am trying to do t^YO things : dare to 
be a radical and not be a fool, wliicli, if I may 
judge by the exliibitions around me, is a mat- 
ter of no small difficulty. 

Private Letter, Jan. 1, 1867. 
A Bulwark of Opposition. 

8. I am glad to have the opportunity of 
standing up against a rabble of men who has- 
ten to make weather-cocks of themselves. 

Private Letter, Dec. 15, 1867. 

The Shores of Life. 

9. Strolling on the shore of life, it is with 
reluctance I plunge back again into the noisy 
haunts of men. 

Letter to A. F. Rockwell, on revisiting Williams College, Aug. 1866. 
Garfield's Dread. 

10. I must do something to keep my 
thoughts fresh and growing. I dread noth- 
ing so much as falling into a rut and feeling 
myself becoming a fossil. 

Private Letter, July 11, 1868. 
The Fight against Gloom. 

11. There is much in life to make one sad 
and disheartened ; but whether we maintain 
a cheerful spirit or not, depends largely on 
the way in which we view the events and out- 
comes of life. I think the main point of 



32 GARFIELD'S WORDS 

safety is to look upon life with a view of doing 
as much good to otliers as possible, and, as far 
as possible, to strip ourselves of what the 

French call egoism. PrU-ate Letter, April 30, 1874. 

Safety from Gloom. 

12. The worst days of darkness through 
which I have ever passed have been greatly 
alleviated by throwing myself with all my 
energy into some work relating to others. 
Your life is so much devoted in this direction 
that I think you will find in it the greatest 
safety from the danger of gloom. ibid. 

Garfield's Model. 

13. This public life is a weary, wearing 
one, that leaves one but little time for that 
quiet reflection which is so necessary to keep 
up a growth and vigor of Christian cliaracter. 
But I hope I have lost none of my desire to 
be a true man, and keep ever before me the 
character of the great Nazarene. 

Letter to Dr. Boynton. 
A Christian's Reply. 

14. I would rather be defeated than make 
capital out of my religion. 

Eemark at Chatauqiia, Aug. 8, 1880. 



HERE AND THERE. 33 

Wrinkles. 

15. If wrinkles must be written upon our 
brows, let them not be written upon the heart. 
The spirit should not grow old. 

Letter to Col. Rockwell, on revisiting Williams College. 

Danger. 

16. It may be well to smile in the face of 
danger, but it is neither well nor wise to 
let danger approach unchallenged and unan- 
nounced. 

A Good Symbol. 

17. Hope rises and falls by the accidents 
of war, as the mercury of the thermometer 
changes by the accidents of heat and cold. 
Let us rather take for our symbol the sailor's 
barometer, which faithfully forewarns him of 
the tempest, and gives him unerring promise 
of serene skies and peaceful seas. 

Communists. 

18. Who of US would not be communists 
in a despotism? 

The Shallowness of "Words. 

19. With words, we make promises, plight 
faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be 
kept ; plighted faith may be broken ; and 



34 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

vaunted virtue may be only the cunning mask 

of vice. Decoration Day Oral ion, ISQS. 

Sovereign Power. 

20. Wherever you find sovereign power, 
every reverent heart on this earth bows be- 
fore it. Reception Speech, Washington, Nov., 1880. 

Lying. 

21. It is not right or manly to lie, even 

about Satan. Warren, O., Sept. 19, 1874. 

Governments and Man. 

22. Governments, in general, look upon 
man only as a citizen, a fraction of the state. 
God looks upon him as an individual man, 
with capacities, duties, and a destiny of his 
own; and just in proportion as a government 
recognizes the individual and shields him in 
the exercises of his rights, in that proportion 
is it Godlike and glorious. 

Ravenna, O., July 4, 1860. 
The Treatment of Crime. 

23. It is cheaper to reduce crime than to 

build jails. House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 

The Mandate of Christianity. 

24. Christianity bids us seek, in com- 
munion with our brethren of every race and 
clime, the blessings they can afford us, and to 



HERE AND THERE. 35 

bestow in return upon them those with which 
our new continent is destined to fill the world. 

House of Representatives, April 1, 1870. 
The Advantages of Communication. 

25. Distance, estrangement, isolation, have 
been overcome by the recent amazing growth 
in the means of intercommunication. For 
political and industrial purposes California 
and Massachusetts are nearer neighbors to- 
day, than were Philadelphia and Boston in 
the days of the Revolution. It was distance, 
isolation, ignorance of separate parts, that 
broke the cohesive force of the great empires 
of antiquity. 

Address before the Literary Societies of Hudson College. 

Intercourse. 

26. We cannot if we would, and should 
not if we could, remain isolated and alone. 
Men under the benign influence of Christian- 
ity yearn for intercourse, for the interchange 
of thought and the products of thought as a 
means of a common progress toward a nobler 
civilization. Ma. 

The Dead. 

27. We hold reunions, not for the dead, 
for there is nothing in all the earth that you 
and I can do for the dead. They are past 



36 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

our help and past our praise. We can add to 
them no glory, we can give to them no im- 
mortalit}^ They do not need us, but forever 
and forever more we need them. 

Geneva, Aug. 3, ISSO. 
The Power in the Speech. 

28. No man can make a speech alone. 
It is the great human power that strikes up 
fi'om a thousand minds that acts upon him 
and makes the speech. 

The Doctrine of Chance. 

29. Nothing is more uncertain than the 
result of any one throw ; few things more 
certain than the result of many throws. 

The Fools. 

30. There are alwaj^s a few who believe 
in the quadrature of the circle and the per- 
petual motion. The gods of Greece were 
discrowned and disowned by the civilized 
world a thousand years ago ; and yet within 
the last generation an eminent English scholar 
attested his love for classical learning, and 
his devotion to the Greek mythology, by act- 
ually sacrificing a bull to Jupiter in the back- 
parlor of his house in London. 



HERE AND THERE. 37 

Talent's Substitute. 

31. If the power to do hard work is not 
talent, it is the best possible substitute for it. 

The Fruits of Occasion. 

32. Occasion may be the bngle-call that 
summons an army to battle, but the blast of 
a bugle can never make soldiers or win vic- 
tories. 

Methods of Discovery. 

33. Things don't turn up in this world 
until somebody turns them up. 

The FeUowship of the Virtues. 

34. There is a fellowship among the vir- 
tues by which one great, generous passion 
stimulates another. 

The Kingdom of Opinion. 

35. In the minds of most men the king- 

o 

dom of opinion is divided into three territo- 
ries : the territory of yes, the territory of 
no, and a broad, unexplored middle ground of 

doubt. House qJ- Representatives, Jan. 28, 1880. 

A Mystery of Sorrow, 

36. It is one of the precious mysteries 



38 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

of sorrow that it finds solace in unselfish 
thought. 

The Deception of Calm. 

37. Quiet is no certain pledge of perma- 
nence and safety. Trees may flourish and 
flowers may bloom upon the quiet mountain 
side, while silently the trickling rain-drops 
are filling the deep cavern behind its rocky 
barriers, which, by and by, in a single mo- 
ment, shall hurl to wild ruin its treacherous 

peace. Ravenna, July 4, 1860. 

The Laborer's Commodity. 

38. The laborer has but one commodity 
to sell, — his day's work. It is his sole reli- 
ance. He must sell it to-day, or it is lost for- 
ever. House of Representatives, Feb. 24, 1876. 

The Desire of Men. 

39. I take it for granted that every 
thoughtful, intelligent man would be glad, if 
he could, to be on the right side, beUeving 
that in the long run the right side will be the 

strong side. Cleveland, Oct. 11, 1879. 

Men and their God. 

40. There are times in the history of men 
and nations, when they stand soVnear the veil 



HERE AND THERE. 39 

that separates mortals and immortals, time 
from eternity, and men from their God, that 
they can almost hear their breathings and feel 
the pulsations of the heart of the infinite. 
Through such a time has this nation passed. 
When two hundred and fifty thousand brave 
spirits passed from the field of honor through 
that thin veil to the presence of God, and 
when, at last, its parting folds admitted the 
martyred President to the company of the 
dead heroes of the Republic, the nation stood 
so near the veil that the whispers of God were 
heard by the children of men. 

Oration on Abraham Lincoln. 
The Portion of Man. 

41. For the noblest man that lives there 
still remains a conflict. 

The Principles of Ethics. 

42. The principles of ethics have not 
changed by the lapse of years. 

The Value of Victory. 

43. Victory is worth nothing except for 
the fruits that are under it, in it, and above 

it. New York, Aug. 6, 1880. 



40 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

Our Happiness. 

44. We are never without a man or a 
motto to sliout over. 

The Fame of the Fisherman. 

45. The fame of the dead fisherman has 
outlived the glory of the Eternal City. 

Arlington, May 30, 1868. 
Theological Scholarship. 

46. To profound tlieological scholarship 
German is indispensable. 

Private Letter, July 30, 1873. 
Intelligent Americans. 

47. No intelligent American of our day 
leads an isolated life. aeveiand,juiy 11,1^91. 

A Missent Millennium. 

48. A millennium that comes before its 
time would be a very profitless and stupid af- 
fair. Ibid. 

Light. 

49. Light itself is a great corrective. A 
thousand wrongs and abuses that are grown 
in darkness dissappear like owls and bats be- 
fore the light of da}^. 



ART. — CHARACTER. 41 



ART. 

True Art. 

50. True art is but the anti-type of nature 
^the embodiment of discovered beauty in 
utility. 

The Spirit of Art. 

51. We cannot study nature profoundly 
without bringing ourselves into communion 
with the spirit of art, which pervades and fills 
the universe. 



CHARACTER. 
The Production of Character. 

52. Every character is the joint product 
of nature and nurture. 

Where to Pitch the Tent. 

53. I beg you, when you pitch your tent, 
pitch it among the living and not among the 

(Jead. Cleveland, Oct. 11, 1870. 

The Problems of Character. 

54. The problems to be solved in the 
study of human life and character are these : 



42 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

Given the character of a man and the con- 
ditions of life around him, what will be his 
career ? Or, given his character and career, 
of what kind were his surroundings ? The 
relation of these three factors to each other is 
severely logical. From them is deduced all 
genuine history. Character is the chief ele- 
ment, for it is both a result and a cause — a 
result of influences and a cause of results. 

Knowledge of Character. 

55. I have sometimes thought that we 
cannot know any man thoroughly well while 
he is in perfect health. As the ebb-tide dis- 
closes the real lines of the shore and the bed 
of the sea, so feebleness, sickness, and pain 
bring out the real character of a man. For 
years he pushed away the hand that was 
reaching for his heart-strings, and bravely 
worked on until the last hour. I do not 
doubt that his will and cheerful courage pro- 
longed his life many years. 

Oration on Congressman Starkweather. 

The Foundation of Character. 

66. Character is the result of two great 
forces : the initial force which the Creator 
gave it when He called the man into being ; 



CHARACTER. 43 

and the force of all the external influence and 

culture that mold and modify the development 

01 a ilie. Oration on Congressman Gustave Schleicher. 

The Influences of Character. 

57. No power of analysis can exhibit all 
the latent forces enfolded in the spirit of a 
new-born child, which derive their origin 
from the thoughts and deeds of remote ances- 
tors, and, enveloped in the awful mystery of 
life, have been transmitted from generation 
to generation across forgotten centuries. 
Each new life is thus " the heir of all the 
ages." Ibid, 

A Bare Gift of Character. 

68. The great Carlyle has said that the 
best gift God ever gave to man was an eye 
that could really see ; and that only few men 
were recipients of that gift. I venture to add 
that an equally rare and not less important 
gift is the courage to tell what one sees. 

Oration on Zachariah Chandler, Jan. 28, 1880. 
The Formation of Strong Character. 

59. There will be a period when old men 
and young will be electrified by the spirit of 
the times, and one result will be to make 



44 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

every individuality more marked and tlieir 
opinions more decisive. I believe the times 
will be even more favorable than calm ones 
for tlie formation of strong and forcible char- 
acters. Private Letter on the breaUng out of the War. 

The most Interesting Object in the World. 

60. If the superior beings of the universe 
would look down upon the world to find the 
most interesting object, it would be the unfin- 
ished, unformed character of young men, or of 

young women. mram college, July, 1880. 

The Value of Leisure. 

61.1 congratulate you on your leisure. I 
recommend you to keep it as your gold, as your 
wealth, as your means, out of which you win 
the leisure you have to think, the leisure you 
have to be let alone, the leisure you have to 
throw the plummet with your hand, and sound 
the depths and find out what is below ; the leis- 
ure you have to walk about the towers of your- 
selves, and find how strong they are, or how 
weak they are, and determine what needs 
building up, and determine how to shape 
them, that you may make the final being that 
you are to be. Oh, those hours of building ! 

Ibid. 



GREAT CHARACTERS. 45 

The Early Influences. 

62. No page of liimian history is so in- 
structive and significant as the record of those 
early influences which develop the character 
and direct the lives of eminent men. 

Oration on Joseph Henry, Jan. 16, 1879. 

The Moment of Discovery. 

63. To every man of great original power, 
there comes, in early youth, a moment of sud- 
den discovery — of self- recognition — when 
his own nature is revealed to himself, when he 
catches, for the first thne, a strain of that im- 
mortal song to which his own spirit answers, 
and which becomes thenceforth and forever 
the inspiration of his life 

" Like noble music unto noble words." Ibid. 

Poverty no Obstacle to Advancement. 

64. Let not poverty stand as an obstacle 

in your way. Oration on Miss Booth, Jan 22, 1876. 



GREAT CHARACTERS. 

George H. Thomas. 

65. Not a man of iron, but of live oak. 

Oration on Geo. H. Thomas. 



46 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

Thomas's Simplicity. 

QQ. His character was as grand and sim- 
ple as a colossal pillar of chiseled granite. 

Ibid. 



Thomas's Power. 

67. His power as a commander was de- 
veloped slowly and silently ; not like a vol- 
canic land lifted from the sea by sudden and 
violent upheaval, but rather like a coral island, 
where each increment is a growth, — an act 
of life and work. ma. 

Lincoln's Place. 

68. He was the pilot and commander of 

his administration. oration on Lincoln. 

Lincoln's Character. 

69. He was one of the few great rulers 
whose wisdom increased with his power, and 
whose spirit grew gentler and tenderer as his 
triumphs were multiplied. 

Oration on Abraham Lincoln. 



Miss Booth. 

70. After her return from Oberlin, she 
paid more attention to the mint, anise, and 

cummin of life. Oration on Miss Booth. 



GREAT CHARACTERS. 47 

John Stuart Mill. 

71. I can't see that he ever came to com- 
prehend human life as a reality from the act- 
ual course of human affairs, beginning with 
Greek life down to our own. Men and 
women were always with him more or less 
of the nature of abstractions ; while, with his 
enormous mass of books, he learned a won- 
derful power of analysis, for which he was 
by nature surprisingly fitted. But his edu- 
cation was narrow just where his own mind 
was originally deficient. He was educated 
solely through books ; for his father was never 
a companion. His brothers and sisters bored 
him. He had no playfellows, and of his 
mother not a word is said in his autobi- 
ography. Private Letter, Jan. 18, 1874. 

Zachariah. Chandler. 

72. As a political force Mr. Chandler may 
be classed among the Cyclopean figures of 
history. The Norsemen would enroll him 
as one of the heroes in the halls of Valhalla. 
They would associate him with Thor and his 
thunder hammer. The Romans would asso- 
ciate him with Vulcan and the forges of the 
Cyclops, who made the earth tremble under 
the weight of his strokes. 

House of Representatives, Jan. 28, 1880. 



48 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

Congressman Starkweather. 

73. He had one experience that almost 
every man must have before his character can 
be fully tested. He was tried in the fiery 
furnace of detraction and abuse. I remember 
well, in that period of assault, how calmly, how 
modestly, and yet how bravely he bore him- 
self — without bitterness and without shrink- 
incr — boldly meeting all assaults, calmly an- 
swering, bearing himself through the storm 
like a genuine man as he was. That was the 
test that set the seal of character and gave 
assurance that he was made of the real stuff 
of which genuine heroic men are made. 

Robert Burns. 

74. To appreciate the genius and achieve- 
ments of Robert Burns, it is fitting to com- 
pare him with others who have been emi- 
nent in the same field. In the highest class 
of lyric poetry their names stand eminent. 
Their field covers eighteen centuries of time, 
and the three names are Horace, Beranger, 
and Burns. It is an interesting and sugges- 
tive fact, that each of these sprang from the 
humble walks of life. Each may be described 
as one — 

" Who begs a brother of the earth, 
To give him leave to toil," 



GREAT CHARACTERS. 49 

diid each proved by bis life and acbieyements 
that, bowever bard the lot of poverty, " a 
man's a man for a' tbat." 

A great writer bas said tbat it took tbe 
age forty years to catch Burns, so far was be 
in advance of tbe thoughts of bis times. But 
we ought not to be surprised at tbe power be 
exhibited. We are apt to be misled when we 
seek to find the cause of greatness in the 
schools and universities alone. There is no 
necessary conflict between nature and art. In 
the highest and best sense art is as natural as 
nature. We do not wonder at tbe perfect 
beauty of tbe rose, although we may not 
understand the mysteries by which its deli- 
cate petals are fashioned and fed out of the 
grosser elements of eartb. We do not wonder 
at tbe perfection of the rose because God is 
the artist. When He fashioned tbe germ of 
the rose-tree He made possible tbe beauties of 
its flower. Tbe earth and air and sunshine 
conspired to unfold and adorn it — to tint and 
crown it with peerless beauty. When tbe 
Divine Artist would produce a poem. He 
plants a germ of it in a human soul, and out 
of tbat soul tbe poem springs and grows as 
from the rose-tree tbe rose. 

Burns w^as a child of nature. He lived 
4 



50 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

close to her beating heart, and all the rich 
and deep S3^mpathies of life glowed and lived 
in his heart. The beauties of earth, air, and 
sky filled and transfigured him. 

" He did but sing because he must, 
And piped but as the linnets sing." 

With the light of his genius he glorified 
'' the banks and braes" of his native land, and, 
speaking for the universal human heart, has 
set its sweetest thought to music, — 

" Whose echoes roll from soul to soul, 
And grow forever and forever. ' 

Oration on the Anniversary of Burns' s Death 



GREAT MEN. 



Towering Men. 

75. As a" giant tree absorbs all the ele- 
ments of growth within its reach and leaves 
only a sickly vegetation in its shadow, so do 
towering great men absorb all the strength 
and glory of their surroundings and leave a 
dearth of greatness for a whole generation. 

Honors. 

76. A monopoly of popular honors is as 
much of a tyranny as a monopoly of wealth. 



SUCCESS IN LIFE. 51 

Descendants of Great Men. 

77. It liiis been fortunate that most of 
our greatest men bave left no descendants to 
sliine in the borrowed lustre of a great name. 



SUCCESS IN LIFE. 
The Men who Succeed. 

78. The men who succeed best in public 
life are those who take the risk of standing 
by their own convictions. 

Luck. 

79. Luck is an ignis-fatuus. You may 
follow it to ruui, but never to success. 

Poverty. 

80. Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can 
testify; but nine times out of ten the best 
thing that can happen to a young man is to 
be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or 
swim for himself. In all my acquaintance I 
never knew a man to be drowned who was 
worth the savino^. 

Growth. 

81. Growth is better than permanence, 
and permanent growth is better than all. 



52 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

The Bestowal of the "Wreath. 

82. It is no honor or profit merely to ap- 
pear in the arena. The wreath is for those 
who contend. 

The Man Men Love. 

83. If there be one thing upon this earth 
that mankind love and admire better than an- 
other, it is a brave man — it is a man who 
dares to look the devil in the face and tell 
him he is a devil. 

Pluck. 

84. A pound of pluck is worth a ton of 
luck. 

The Chance of the Republic. 

85. There is no American boy, however 
poor, however humble, orphan though he may 
be, that, if he have a clear head, a true heart, 
a strong arm, may not rise through all the 
grades of society, and become the crown, the 
glory, the pillar of the State. 

The Commanders. 

86. To a young man who has in himself 
the magnificent possibilities of life it is not 
fitting that he should be permanently com- 



SUCCESS IN LIFE. 53 

manded ; he should be a commander. You 
must not continue to be the employed. You 
must be an employer ! You must be pro- 
moted from the ranks to a command. There 
is something, young man, which you can com- 
mand — go and find it and command it. Do 
not, I beseech you, be content to enter upon 
any business which does not require and com- 
pel constant intellectual growth. 

Knowledge. 

87. In order to have any success in life, 
or any worthy success, you must resolve to 
carry into your work a fullness of knowledge 
— not merely a sufficiency, but more than a 
sufficiency. 

Achievement. 

88. Be fit for more tlian the thing you 
are now doing. 

Proportion. 

89. If you are not too large for the place 
y^ou are too small for it. 

The Right Trust. 

90. Young men talk of trusting to the 
spur of the occasion. That trust is vain. Oc- 



GARFIELD'S WORDS. 



casions cannot make spurs. If you expect to 
wear spurs you must win them. If you wish 
to use them you must buckle them to your 
own heels before you go mto the fight. 



THE PRIVILEGES OF YOUTH. 
Two Privileges. 

91. The privilege of being a young man 
is a great privilege, and the privilege of grow- 
ing up to be an independent man in middle 
life is a greater. speech at Peekskui, au?. 4, I880. 

The Glory of Manhood. 

92. I have not so far left the coast of 
youth to travel inland but that I can very 
well remember the state of young manhood, 
from an experience in it of some years, and 
there is nothing to me in this world so inspir- 
ing as the possibilities that lie locked up in 
the head and breast of a young man. The 
hopes that lie before him, the great inspira- 
tions above him, all these things, with the 
untried pathway of life opening up its diffi- 
culties and dangers, inspire him to courage, 
and force, and work. Mentor, oct. 8, isso. 



EDUCATION. 55 

EDUCATION. 

A Principle. 

93. School-houses are less expensive than 
rebellions. 

Outrages of Education. 

94. It is to me a perpetual wonder that 
any child's love of knowledge survives the 
outrages of the school-house. 

The Beginning. 

95. That man will be a benefactor of his 
race who shall teach us how to manage rightly 
the first years of a child's education. 

Wrongly Directed Effort. 

96. One half of the time which is now 
almost wholly wasted, in district schools, on 
English grammar attempted at too early an 
age, would be sufficient to teach our children 
to love the Republic and to become its loyal 
and life-long supporters. 

Ttie New Necessities. 

97. The old necessities have passed away. 
We now have strong and noble living lan- 
guages ; ricli in literature, replete with high 



^Q GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

and earnest thought, the language of science, 
religion, and liberty, and yet we bid our chil- 
dren feed their spirits on the life of the dead 
ao-es, instead of the inspiring life and vigor of 
our own times. I do not object to classical 
leai-ning — far from it — but I would not have 
it exclude the living present. 

Greek. 

98. Greek is perhaps the most perfect in- 
strument of thought ever invented by man, 
and its literature has never been equaled in 
purity of style and boldness of expression. 

The Graduate's Achieveraents. 

99. The graduate would blush were he to 
mistake the place of a Greek accent, or put 
the ictus on the second syllable of Eolus ; but 
the wdiole circle of the " liberalmm artnun,'' 
so pompously referred to in his diploma of 
graduation, may not have taught him whether 
the jejunum is a bone or the humerus an in- 
testine. 

The Student's Course. 

100. The student should study himself, 
his relation to society, to nature and to art — 
and above all, in all, and through all these. 



EDUCATION. 57 

he sboulcl study the relations of himself, so- 
ciety, iiiiture and art, to God the author of 
them all. 



A Danger. 

101. It would be unjust to our people and 
dangerous to our institutions to apply any 
portion of the revenues of the nation or of the 
States to the support of sectarian schools. 

The Idea of Giving. 

102. It seems to me that, in this act of 
giving, we almost copy its prototype in what 
God Himself has done on this great continent 
of ours. In the centre of its greatest breadth, 
where, otherwise, there might be a desert for- 
ever, he has planted a chain of the greatest 
lakes on the earth, and the exhalations aris- 
ing from their pure waters every day, come 
down in gracious showers, and make that a 
blooming garden which otherwise might be a 
desert Avaste. And from our great wilderness 
lands it is proposed that their proceeds, like 
the dew, shall fall forever, not upon the lands, 
but upon the minds of the children of the na- 
tion, giving them, for all time to come', all the 
blessing, and growth, and greatness, that ed- 
ucation can afford. That thought, I say it 



58 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

a'^ain, is a great one, worthy of a great na- 
tion ; and this country will remember the man 
who formulated it into language, and will re- 
member the Congress that made it law. 

House of Representatives, Feb. 6, 1S72. 

Two Forces of Education. 

103. Here two forces play with all their 
vast power upon our system of education. 
The first is that of the local, municipal power 
under our State governments. There is the 
centre of responsibility. There is the chief 
educational power. There can be enforced 
Luther's great thought of placing on magis- 
trates the duty of educating children. ibid. 

The Mind in Education. 

104. This work of public education par- 
takes in a peculiar way of the spirit of the 
human mind in its efforts for culture. The 
mind must be as free from extraneous control 
as possible ; must work under the inspiration 
of its own desires for knowledge ; and while 
instructors and books are necessary helps, the 
fullest and highest success must spring from 
the power of self-help. ibid. 



EDUCATION. 59 

The Best System. 

105. Tlie best system of education is that 
which draws its chief support from the vohm- 
tary effort of the community, from the indi- 
vidual efforts of citizens, and from those bur- 
dens of taxation which they voluntarily im- 
pose upon themselves. ibid. 

The Importance of Education. 

106. Next in importance to freedom and 
justice, is popular education, without which, 
neither justice nor freedom can be perma- 
nently maintained. Letter of Acceptance. 

How to Study. 

107. Use several text-books. Get the 
views of different autliors as you advance. 
In that way you can plow a broader furrow. 
I always study in that way. Reply to a scholar. 

108. The student should first study what 
he needs most to know ; the order of his needs 
should be the order of his work. 

Hiram, June l^,\%'d. 
The Perversions of Education. 

109. It will not be denied that from the 
day that the child's foot first presses the green 



60 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

turf till the day when, an old man, he is ready 
to be laid under it, there is not an hour in 
which he does not need to know a thousand 
things in relation to his body, " what he shall 
eat, what he shall drink, and wherewithal he 
shall be clothed." If parents were themselves 
sufficiently educated, most of this knowledge 
might be acquired at the mother's knee ; but, 
by the strangest perversion and misdirection 
of the educational forces, these most essential 
elements of knowledge are more neglected 
than any other. ibid. 

A Finished Education. 

110. A finished education is supposed to 
consist mainly of literary culture. The story 
of the forges of the Cyclops, where the thun- 
derbolts of Jove were fashioned, is supposed 
to adorn elegant scholarship more gracefully 
than those sturdy truths which are preaching 
to this generation in the wonders of the mine, 
in the fire of the furnace, in the clang of the 
iron-mills, and the other innumerable indus- 
tries which, more than all other human agen- 
cies, have made our civilization what it is, and 
are destined to achieve wonders yet un- 
dreamed of. Ibid. 



EDUCATION. 61 

Education and Industry. 

111. This generation is beginning to un- 
derstand that education should not be forever 
divorced from industry ; that the highest re- 
sults can be reached only when science guides 
the hand of labor. With what eagerness and 
alacrity is industry seizing every truth of 
science and putting it in harness. ibia. 

Educating Children. 

112. Grecian children were taught to rev- 
erence and emulate the virtue of their ances- 
tors. Our educational forces are so wielded 
as to teach our children to admire most that 
which is foreign and fabulous and dead. ibid. 

A Condition of Graduation. 

113. I insist that it should be made an in- 
dispensable condition of graduation in every 
American college, that the student must un- 
derstand the history of this continent since its 
discovery by Europeans, the origin and his- 
tory of the United States, its constitution of 
government, the struggles through which it 
has passed, and the rights and duties of citi- 
zens who are to determine its destiny and 
share its glory. ^^^- 



62 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

The Education of "Women. 

114. At present, llie most valuitble gift 
which can be bestowed on woman is some- 
thing to do, which they can do well and wor- 
thily, and thereby maintain themselves. 

Oration before the Washington Business College, Jan. 29, 1869. 

The Duty of the Government. 

115. The stork is a sacred bird in Hol- 
hind, and is protected by her laws, because it 
destro^ s those insects which would undermine 
the dikes, and let the sea ngain overwdielm the 
rich fields of the Netherlands. Shall this gov- 
ernment do nothing to foster and strengthen 
those educational agencies which alone can 
shield the coming generation from ignorance 
and vice, and make it the impregnable bul- 
wark of liberty and law ? 

House of Representatives, Jan. 8, 1866. 

A Question of Weight, 

116. Is it of no consequence that we ex- 
plore the boundaries of that wonderful intel- 
lectual empire which encloses witliin its do- 
minion the fate of succeeding generations, and 
of this Republic ? Md. 



EDUCATION. 63 

The Architects of the Future. 

117. The children of to-day will be the 
architects of our country's destiny in 1900. 

Ibid. 

The student's Studies. 

118. Prominent among all the rest should 
be his study of the wonderful history of the 
human race, in its slow and toilsome march 
across the centuries — now buried in igno- 
rance, superstition, and crime ; now rising to 
the sublimity of heroism, and catching a 
glimpse of a better destiny ; now turning 
remorselessly away from, and leaving to per- 
ish, empires and civilizations in which it had 
invested its faith and courage and boundless 
energy for a thousand years, and plunging 
into the forests of Germany, Gaul, and Brit- 
ain, to build for itself new empires better 
fitted for its new aspirations ; and at last, 
crossing three thousand miles of unknown 
sea, and building in the wilderness of a new 
hemisphere its latest and proudest monu- 
ments. Address at Hiram. 

The Power of Intellect. 

119. The intellectual resources of this 
country are the elements that lie behind all 



64 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

material wealth, and make it either a curse 
or a blessing. ibid. 

Our Safeguard from Danger. 

120. Finally, our great hope for the fu- 
ture, our great safeguard against danger, is 
to be found in the general and thorough edu- 
cation of our people, and in the virtue which 
accompanies such education. And all tliese 
elements depend, in a large measure, upon the 
intellectual and moral culture of the young 
men who go out from our higher institutions 
of learning. From the stand-point of this gen- 
eral culture we may trustfully encounter the 
perils that assail us. Secure against dangers 
from abroad, united at home by the stronger 
ties of common interest and patriotic pride, 
holding and unifying our vast territory by 
the most potent forces of civilization, relying 
upon the intelligent strength and responsi- 
bility of each citizen, and, most of all, upon 
the power of truth, without undue arrogance, 
we may hope that in the centuries to come 
our Republic will continue to live and hold its 
high place among the nations as 

" The heir of all the ages in the foremost files of time." 

Address at Hudson College. 



IDEAS. — LITERATURE. 65 

IDEAS. 
The Life of Ideas. 

121. Ideas outlive men. 

Great Ideas. 

122. Great ideas travel slowly, and for a 
time noiselessly, as the gods whose feet were 
shod with wool. 



LITERATURE. 

The Relations of Art and Literature. 

123. What the arts are to the world of 
matter, literature is to the world of mind. 

A Fault of Modern Literature. 

124. The greater part of our modern 
literature bears evident marks of the haste 
which characterizes all the moyements of this 
age ; but, in reading these older authors, we 
are impressed with the idea that they enjoyed 
the most comfortable leisure. Many books 
we can read in a railroad car, and feel a har- 
mony between the rushing of the train and 
the haste of the author ; but to enjoy the 
older authors, we need the quiet of a winter 

5 



66 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

evening — an easy-chair before a cheerful fire, 
and all the equanimity of spirits we can com- 
mand. Then the genial good nature, the rich 
fuUness, the persuasive eloquence of those old 
masters will fall upon us like the warm, glad 
sunshine, and afford those hours of calm con- 
templation in which the spirit may expand 
with generous growth, and gain deep and 
comprehensive views. The pages of friendly 
old Goldsmith come to us like a golden au- 
tumn day, when every object which meets the 
eye bears all the impress of the completed 
year, and the beauties of an autumnal forest. 

Essay on ^^ Karl T/ieodor Korner"'' in Williams Qunrierly, March, 
1856. 



The Real Spirit of Literature. 

125. He who would understand the real 
spirit of literature should not select authors 
of any one period alone, but rather go to the 
fountain-head, and trace the little rill as it 
courses along down the ages, broadening and 
deepening into the great ocean of Thought 
which the men of the present are exploring. 

Ibid. 

The True Literary Man. 

126. The true literary man is no mere 
gleaner, following in the rear and gathering 



LITERATURE. 67 

up the fragments of the world's thought ; but 
he goes down deep into the heart of humanity, 
watches its throbbings, analyzes the forces at 
work there ; traces out, with prophetic fore- 
sight, their tendencies, and thus, standing out 
far beyond his age, holds up the picture of 
what it is and is to be. Md. 

Forced Work, 

127. It is indeed an uninviting task to 
bubble up sentiment and elaborate thought 
in obedience to corporate laws, and not infre- 
quently these children of the brain, when 
paraded before the proper authorities, show 
by their meagre proportions that they have 
not been nourished by the genial warmth of 

a "willing heart. Editor's Table, Williams Quarterly, I80Q. 

The Purpose of Literary Production. 

128. It proposes a kind of intellectual 
tournament where we may learn to hurl the 
lance and wield the sword, and thus prepare 
for the conflict of life. It shall be our aim to 
keep the lists still open and the arena clear, 
that the knights of the quill may learn to hurl 
the lance and wield the sword of thought, and 
thus be ready for sterner duties. We shall 
also endeavor to decorate the arena with all 



68 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

the flowers that our oion gardens afford, and 
thus render the place more pleasant and in- 
viting. Ibid. 

Books. 

129. The few books that came within his 
reach he devoured with the divine hunger of 

genius. Oration on Lincoln. 

AN ODE FROM HORACE. 

A Translation. 

Washington, January 15, 1874. 

130. Permit me to transcribe a metrical 
version which I made the other day of the 
third ode of Horace's first book. It is still in 
the rough : — 

TO THE SHIP WHICH CARRIED VIRGIL TO ATHENS. 



So may the poTverful goddess of Cyprus, 
So may the brothers of Helen, turn stars, 
So may the father and ruler of tempest 
(Restraining all others, save only liipix) 



Guide thee, ship, on thy journey, that owest 
To Attica's shores Virgil trusted to thee. 
I pray thee restore him, in safety restore him, 
And saving him, save me the half of my soul. 



AN ODE FROM HORACE. 69 

III. 

Stout oak and brass triple surrounded his bosom 
Who first to the waves of the merciless sea 
Committed his frail bark. He feared not Africus, 
Fierce battling the gales of the furious North. 

IV. 

Nor feared he the gloom of the rain-bearing Hyads, 
Nor the rage of fierce Notus, a tyrant than whom 
No storm-god that rules on the broad Adriatic 
Is mightier, its billows to rouse or to calm. 

V. 

What form, or what pathway of death him affrighted, 

W^ho faced with dry eyes monsters swimming the deep, 

Who gazed without fear on the storm-swollen billows, 

And the lightning-scarred rocks, grim with death on the shore ? 

VI. 

In vain did the prudent Creator dissever 
The lands from the lands by the desolate sea, 
If o'er its broad bosom, to mortals forbidden, 
Still leap, all profanely, our impious keels. 

VII. 

Recklessly bold to encounter all dangers, 
Through deeds God-forbidden still rushes our race; 
The son of liipelus, Heaven-defying, 
By impious fraud to the nations brought fire. 

Tin. 
When fire was thus stolen from regions celestial 
Decay smote the earth and brought down in his train 
A new summoned cohort of fevers o'erbrooding, 
And Fate, till then slow and reluctant to strike, 

IX. 

Gave wings to his speed and swift death to his victims. 
Bold Daedalus tried the void realms of the air, 



70 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

Borne upward on pinions not given to mortals. 
The labors of Hercules broke into Hell. 



Naught is too high for the daring of mortals, 

Even Heaven we seek in our folly to scale : 

Bv our own impious crimes we permit not the thunder 

To sleep without flame iu the right hand of Jove. 

I can better most of these verses, but send 
to you as I left them in the first rough draft. 

From a Private Letter. 



A SPRAY OF ELOQUENCE. 
A Monument of our Liberties. 

131. When Pericles had made Greece im- 
mortal in arts and arms, in liberty and law, 
he invoked the genius of Phidias to devise a 
monument which should symbolize the beauty 
and glory of Athens. That artist selected for 
his theme the tutelar divinity of Athens, the 
Jove-born Goddess, protectress of arts and 
arms, of industry and law, who typified the 
Greek conception of composed, majestic, un- 
relenting force. He erected on the heights 
of the Acropolis a colossal statue of Minerva, 
armed with spear and helmet, which towered 
in awful majesty above the surrounding tein- 



A SPRAT OF ELOQUENCE. 71 

pies of the gods. Sailors on far-off ships be- 
h('l(i the crest and spear of the Goddess, and 
bowed with reverent awe. To every Greek 
she was the symbol of power and glory. But 
the Acropolis, with its temples and statues, is 
now a heap of ruins. The visible gods have 
vanished in the clearer light of modern civil- 
ization. We cannot restore the decayed em- 
blems of ancient Greece, but it is in your 
power, O Judges, to erect in this citadel of 
our liberties a monument more lasting than 
brass ; invisible, indeed, to the eye of flesh, 
but visible to the eye of the spirit as the 
awful form and figure of Justice crowning 
and adorning the Republic ; rising above the 
storms of political strife, above the din of 
battle, above the earthquake shock of rebel- 
lion ; seen from afar and hailed as protector 
by the oppressed of all nations ; dispensing 
equal blessings, and covering with the pro- 
tecting shield of law the weakest, the hum- 
blest, the meanest, and, until declared by 
solemn law unworthy of protection, the guilt- 
iest of its citizens. 

Peroration to Argument in the L. P. MUligan Case, Supreme 
Court, aiarck, 1866. 



72 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 



MEMORY. 

Poem, 

132. "'Tis beauteous night; the stars look brightly down 
Upon the earth, decked in her robe of snow. 
No light gleams at the windoAv save my own, 
Which gives its cheer to midnight and to me, 
And now with noiseless step sweet Memory comes, 
And leads me gently through her twilight realms. 
What poet's tuneful lyre has ever sung, 
Or delicatest pencil e'er portrayed 
The enchanted shadowy land where Memory' dwells? 
It has its valleys, cheerless, lone and drear, 
Dark-shaded by the mournful cypress tree. 
And yet its sunlit mountain-tops are bathed 
In heaven's own blue. Upon its craggy cliffs, 
Robed in the dreamy liglit of distant years, 
Are clustered joys serene of other days; 
Upon its genth'-sloping hillsides bend 
The weeping-willows o'er the sacred dust 
Of dear departed ones ; and yet in that land 
Where'er our footsteps fall upon the shore. 
They that were sleeping rise from out tlie dust 
Of death's long, silent years, and round us stand, 
As erst they did before the prison tomb 
Received their clay within its voiceless halls. 
The heavens that bend above that land are hung 
With clouds of various hues : some dark and chill, 
Surcharged with sorrow, cast their sombre shade 
Upon the sunny, joyous land below ; 
Others are floating through the dreamy air ; 
White as the falling snow their margins tinged 
With gold and crimson hues; their shadows fall 
Upon the flowery meads and sunny slopes, 
Soft as the shadows of an angel's wing. 
When the rough battle of the day is done, 
And evening's peace falls gently on the heart, 
I bound away across the noisy years, 



HISTORY. 73 

Unto the utmost verge of Memory's land, 

Where earth and sky in dreamy distance meet, 

And Memory dim with dark oblivion joins; 

"Where woke the first-remembered sounds that fell 

Upon the ear in childhood's early morn; 

And wandering thence, along the rolling years, 

I see the shadow of my former self 

Gliding from chddhood up to man's estate. 

The path of youth winds down through many a vale 

And on the brink of many a dread abyss. 

From out whose darkness comes no ray of light, 

Save that a phantom dances o'er the gulf. 

And beckons toward the verge. Again the path 

Leads o'er a summit where the sunbeams fall ; 

And thus in light and shade, sunshine and gloom, 

Sorrow and joy, this life-path leads along. 

Williams Quarterly. 



HISTORY. 

The Battle of History. 

133. After the battle of arms comes the 
battle of history. 

Hie Province of History, Williams Quarterly. 
"What History Is. 

134. History is but the unrolled scroll of 
prophecy. jbta. 

The Rewriting of History. 

135. The developments of statistics are 
causing history to be rewritten. 

House of Representatives. 



74 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

The "World's History. 

136. The world's history is a divine 
poem of which the history of every nation is 
a canto and every man a word. Its strains 
have been pealing along down the centuries, 
and though there have been mingled, the dis- 
cords of warring cannon and dying men, yet 
to the Christian philosopher and historian — 
the humble listener — there has been a di- 
vine melody running througli the song which 
speaks of hope and halcyon days to come. 

The Province of History, Williams Quarterly. 
The Lesson of History. 

137. The lesson of history is rarely 
learned by the actors themselves, especially 
when they read it by the fierce and dusky 
light of war, or amid the deeper shadows of 
those sorrows which war brings to both. 

House of Representatives, Aug. 6, 1876. 
God in History. 

138. Theologians in all ages have looked 
out admiringly upon the material universe 
and from its inanimate existences demon- 
strated the power, wisdom, and goodness of 
God ; but we know of no one who has demon- 
strated the same attributes from the history 
of the human race. 



HISTORY. 75 

The Lights of History. 

139. All along the dim centuries are 
gleaming lamps which mind has lighted, and 
these are revealing to him (the historian) the 
path which humanity has trod. 

Truth in History. 

140. The cause that triumphs in the field 
does not always triumph in histor}^ 

House oj Representatives, Aug. 6, 1876. 

The Historian's "Work. 

141. Till recently the historian studied 
nations in the aggregate, and gave us only 
the stories of princes, dynasties, sieges, and 
battles ; of the people themselves, the great 
social body with life, growth, forces, elements, 
and laws of its own, — he told us nothing. 
Now statistical inquiry leads him into the 
hovels, homes, workshops, mines, fields, pris- 
ons, hospitals, and all places where human 
nature displays its weakness and its strength. 
Ill these explorations he discovers the seeds 
of national growth and decay, and thus be- 
coQies the prophet of his generation. 

House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 



76 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 



THE PRESS. 



A "Weapon of Civilization. 

142. The printing press is without doubt 
the most powerful weapon with which man 
has ever armed himself for the fight against 
ignorance and oppression. But it was not 
free born. It was invented at a period when 
all the functions of government were most 
widely separated from the people, when se- 
crecy, diplomacy, and intrigue were the chief 
elements of statesmanship. 

Address before the Ohio Editorial Association, July 11, 1878. 
The Martyrs of the Press. 

143. In the long, fierce struggle for free- 
dom of opinion, the press, like the church, 
counted its martyrs by thousands. ibid. 

The First Duty of the Press. 

144. I may not express the opinion of the 
majorit}^ but certainly it is my own, that the 
first and greatest demand which the public 
makes of editors is, that they shall obtain and 
publish all the news, that they shall print a 
veritable and intelligible record of important 
current events. Rather than to weaken, neg- 
lect, or falsify this, it were better that every 



HISTORY. 71 

otlier feature of the newspapers should be 
abandoned. itid. 



Free Criticism. 

145. I hold it equally necessary to liberty 
and good government that the press should 
comment with the utmost freedom upon pub- 
lic acts and opinions of all men who hold 
positions of public trust. ibid. 

Unjust Criticism. 

146. Unjust criticism and false accusa- 
tions, are, in the long run, more injurious to 
the press than to its victims. ibid. 

The Men of the Press. 

147. It belongs to the honor of the press 
to have developed within the past few years 
as gallant a body of men, of as bright intelli- 
gence as the world knows in any profession. 

Ibid. 

Independent Journalism. 

148. If independent journalism means 
freedom from the domination of patronage, 
wealth, or corruption, freedom from party 
dictation, all good men will applaud it. 



78 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

The Duty of the Journalist. 

149. Let the journalist defend the doc- 
trines of the party which he approves, let 
him criticize and condemn the party which he 
does not approve, reserving always his right 
to applaud his opponents or censure his 
friends, as the truth may require, and he will 
be independent enough for a free country. 



POWER. 
The Exhibition of Power. 

150. Power exhibits itself under two dis- 
tinct forms — strength and force, — each pos- 
sessing peculiar qualities and each perfect in 
its own sphere. Strength is typihed by the 
oak, the rock, the mountain. Force embod- 
ies itself in the cataract, the tempest, and 
the thunder-bolt. 



Great Powers. 

151. The possession of great powers no 
doubt carries with it a contempt for mere ex- 
ternal show. Oration on Miss Booth. 



TR UTH. — FREED OM. T 9 



TRUTH. 



Tlie Universality of Truth. 

152. Truth is so related and correlated 
that no department of her realm is Avholly 
isolated. 

The Food of the Spirit. 

153. Truth is the food of the human spirit, 
which could not grow in its majestic propor- 
tions without clearer and more truthful views 
of God and his universe. 



FREEDOM. 



The Safety of Liberty. 

154. Liberty can be safe only when suf- 
frage is illuminated by education. 

Liberty's Weakness. 

155. For a man to feel that every impulse 
for laudable ambition must be strangled at 
its birth, that like fabled Enceladus he has 
been rived by the thunder-bolt of power and 
crushed beneath the mountain of its strength, 
is more than this human nature of ours can 



80 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

endure. What wonder, then, that ever and 
anon, when freedom turns the weary side — 
the fires of devouring vengeance burst forth 
and shake the fabrics of tlie old world, till 
tyrants chatter on their gilded thrones in 
idiotic terror. At such moments, freedom 
may seem to have triumphed there, but when 
the fury of the tempest is past, she lies bleed- 
ing — Samson-like — beneath the ruin she has 
wrought. 

Freedom's Soul. 

156. Equality, the informing soul of free- 
dom ! 

The Foundations of English Liberty. 

157. English liberty to-day rests not so 
much on the government as on those rights 
which the people have wrested from the gov- 
ernment. The rights of the Englishman out- 
number the rights of the Englishman's king. 

The Language of Freedom. 

158. Poetry is the language of freedom. 

Obstacles to Freedom. 

159. Freedom can never yield its fullness 
of blessings so long as the law or its admin- 



LA W AND ORDER. 81 

istration places the smallest obstacle in the 
pathway of any virtuous citizen. 

What Freedom is. 

160. Liberty is no negation. It is a sub- 
stantive, tangible reality. 

House of Representatives, Jan. 13, 1865. 



LAW AND ORDER. 
Order in the Universe. 

161. Mankind have been slow to believe 
that order reigns in the universe, that the 
world is a Cosmos, not a chaos. 

The Reign of Law. 

162. The assertion of the reign of law 
has been stubbornly resisted at every step. 
The divinities of heathen superstition still 
linger in one form or another in the faith of 
the ignorant ; and even many intelligent men 
shrink from the contemplation of one su- 
preme will acting regularly, not fatuitoiisly, 
through law^s beautiful and simple, rather 
than through a fitful and capricious Provi- 
dence. 



82 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

RAILROADS. 
Kailroads and the People, 

163. The American people have done 
much for the locomotive, and the locomotive 
has done much for them. 

Speech on the Railway Problem, June 20, 1874. 

The Value of Railroads. 

164. Imagine if you can what would hap- 
pen if to-morrow morning the railway loco- 
motive and its corollaiy, the telegraph, were 
blotted from the earth. To what humble 
proportions mankind would be compelled to 
scale down the great enterprises they are now 
pushing forward with such ease. ji^a. 

The Law and the Locomotive. 

165. The national Constitution and the 
Constitutions of most of the States were formed 
before the locomotive existed, and, of course, 
no special provisions were made for its con- 
trol. Are our institutions strong enough to 
stand the shock and strain of this new force ? 
I fail to believe that the genius and energy 
that have developed these new and tremen- 
dous forces will fail to make them not the 
masters, but the faithful servants of society. 

Ibid. 



RAILROADS. 83 

The Work of the Railroad. 

166. The railroad lias not only brought 
our people and tlieii- industries together, but 
it has carried civilization into the wilderness, 
has built up the states and territories, which 
but for its power would have remained deserts 
for centuries to come. ^^'^^ 

A Force in Civilization. 

167. The railroad has played a most im- 
portant part in the recent movement for the 
unification and preservation of nations. -••" 



Ibid. 



The Coming Conflict. 

168. It will be unworthy of our age and 
of us if we make the discussion of this sub- 
ject a mere warfare against men. i^d. 

The Value of a Solution. 

169. Its solution will open the way to a 
solution of a whole chapter of similar ques- 
tions that relate to the conflict between capi- 
tal and labor. ^'^^' 



84 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 

Industry. 

170. Wherever a ship plows the sea, or 
a plow furrows the field; w^herever a mine 
yields its treasure ; wherever a ship or a mil- 
road train carries freight to market ; wher- 
ever the smoke of the furnace rises, or the 
clang of the loom resounds ; even in the lonely- 
garret where the seamstress plies her busy 
needle, — there is industry. 

House of Representatives, April 1, 1870. 

Commerce. 

171. Commerce links all mankind in one 
common brotherhood of mutual dependence 
and interests, and thus creates that unity of 
our race which makes the resources of all 
the property of each and every member. 

Ibid. 



STATISTICS. 
The Birth of Statistics. 

172. The word "statistics" itself did not 
exist until 1749, whence we date the begin- 
ning of a new science on which modern legis- 



SCIENCE. 85 

lation must be based, in order to be per- 
manent. The treatise of Achenwall, the 
German philosopher who originated tlie word, 
laid the foundation of many of the greatest 
reforms in modern legislation. 

House of Representatives, April 6, 1869. 

What Statistics are. 

173. Statistics are State facts, facts for the 
consideration of statesmen, such as they may 
not neglect with safety. lud. 

What statistics did. 

174. Without the aid of statistics, that 
most masterly chapter of human history, the 
third of Macaulay's first volume, could never 
have been written. 

House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 



SCIENCE. 

The Scientific Spirit. 

175. The scientific spirit has cast out the 
demons and presented us with nature, clothed 
in her right mind and living under the reign 
of law. It has given us for the sorceries of 
the alchemist, the beautiful laws of chemis- 



86 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

try ; for the dreams of the astrologer, the sub- 
lime truths of astronomy ; for the wild visions 
of cosmogony, the monumental records of ge- 
ology ; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws 

of God. Ibid. 

A Resolution. 

176. We no longer attribute the untimely 
deatli of infants to the sin of Adam, but to 
bad nursing and ignorance. ibid. 

Modern Predictions. 

177. We no longer hope to predict the 
career and destiny of a human being by study- 
ing the conjunction of the planets that pre- 
sided at his birth. We study rather the laws 
of life within him and the elements and forces 
of nature and society around him. md. 

The Science of Statistics. 

178. The science of statistics is of recent 
date, and like many of its sister sciences owes 
its origin to the best and freest impulses of 
modern civilization. 

House of Representatives, Bee. 16, 1869. 



PART IL — WORDS PATRIOTIC. 

The sentences that are included under this head bear, perhaps, 
a closer relation to our institutions and our national glories than 
do those that have preceded them. 



THE POWER OF ELOQUENCE. 

One of the most celebrated sayings of the 
late President was uttered in the first hours 
of the wild fever that followed the death of 
President Lincoln. Fifty thousand excited 
men crowded around the Exchange Building 
in Wall Street to hear how the President 
died. So wrought up were the listeners that 
two men who ventured to say that Lincoln 
ought to have been shot, lay bleeding, dying 
upon the pavement. This fired the vengeance 
of the crowd. Suddenly a shout arose, " The 
World I " " The office of the World ! " and 
ten thousand men faced in the direction of 
that office. It was a critical moment. To 
what lengths of destructiveness the crowd 
might go, no one could foresee. Police and 



88 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

military would have availed little or arrived 
too late. Just at this juncture a man stepped 
forward with a small flag in his hand, and 
beckoned to the crowd. '^ Another telegram 
from Washington," and the crowd hushed 
into eager silence. Then, in the awful still- 
ness of the crisis, taking advantage of the 
hesitation of the half-mad men, a right arm 
was lifted skyward, and a voice, clear and 
steady, loud and distinct, uttered these words 
— w^hich instantly hushed the angr}^ human 
sea, and brought men face to face again with 
their reasons: — 

179. Fellow-citizens ! Clouds and dark- 
ness are round about Him ! His pavilion is 
dark waters and thick clouds of the skies ! 
Justice and judgment are the establishment 
of His throne ! Mercy and truth shall go be- 
fore His face ! Fellow-citizens ! God reigns, 
and the Government at Washington still 
lives ! 

The Golden Thread of Progress. 

180. Throughout the whole web of na- 
tional existence we trace the golden thread of 
human progress toward a higher and better 
estate. 



HERE AND THERE. 89 

Heroes. 

181. Heroes did not make our liberties, 
they but reflected and illustrated them. 

Supreme Law. 

182. If the Supreme Court of Hercula- 
neum or Pompeii had been in session when 
the fiery rain overwhelmed those cities, its au- 
thority would have been suddenly usurped and 
overthrown, but I question the propriety of 
calling that laiu which, in its very nature, is a 
destruction or suspension of all law. 

Supreme Court, L. P. Milligan Case 

Our Legacy. 

183. Let us seek liberty and peace under 
the law ; and, following the pathway of our 
fathers, preserve the great legacy they havo 
committed to our keeping. 

The Right of Private Judgment. 

184. The right of private judgment is 
absolute in every American citizen. 

Warren, Sept. 19, 1874. 
Our People. 

185. If our people are not educated in the 
school of virtue and integrity they will be 



90 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

educated in the school of vice and iniquity. 
We are therefore afloat on the sweeping cur- 
rent : if we make no effort we go down with 
it to the saddest of destinies. 

House of Representatives^ June 8, 1866. 

National Advancement. 

186. It is only by persistent effort that we 
make headway and advancement in civiliza- 
tion. If'id. 

Rights of the American People. 

187. It is the right of the American peo- 
ple to know the necessities of the republic 
when they are called upon to make sacrifices 
for it. 

The Farmer. 

188. Is it not of more consequence to do 
something for the farmer of the future than 
for the farm of to-day ? 

The Servant of his Coxintry. 

1 89. The man who wants to serve his coun- 
try must put himself in the line of the leadmg 
thought, and that is the restoration of busi- 
ness, trade, commerce, industry, science, polit- 
ical economy, hard money, and honest pay- 



HERE AND THERE, 91 

ment of all obligations ; and the man who can 
add anything in the direction of the accom- 
plishment of any of these purposes is a public 
benefactor. 



The Laws. 

190. Here is the volume of our laws. 
More sacred than the twelve tables of Rome. 
This rock of the law rises in monumental 
grandeur alike above the people and the Pres- 
ident, above the courts, above Congress, com- 
manding everywhere reverence and obedience 
to its supreme authority. 

Voluntary Enterprise. 

191. There is another force even greater 
than that of the State and the local govern- 
ments. It is the force of private voluntary 
enterprise, that force which has built up the 
multitude of private schools, academies, and 
colleges throughout the United States, not 
always wisely, but always with enthusiasm 
and wonderful energy. 

House of Representatives, Feb. 6, 1872. 
The Treasures of American Souls. 

192. I love to beheve that no heroic sacri- 
fice is ever lost ; that the characters of men are 



92 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

moulded and inspired by what their fathers 
have done ; that, treasured up in American 
souls are all the unconscious influences of the 
great deeds of the Anglo-Saxon race, from 
Agincourt to Bunker Hill. 

American Honor. 

193. Let no one tarnish his well-earned 
honor by any act unworthy an American sol- 
dier. Remember your duties as American 
citizens, and sacredly respect the rights and 
property of those with whom you may como 
in contact. Let it not be said that good men 
dread the approach of an American army. 

Proclamation to tlie Soldiers after the Battle of Middle Creek, 1861. 
The Perils of a Nation. 

194. A brav^e nation, like a brave man, 
desires to see and measure the perils which 

threaten it. House of Representatives, June 2\,\?>^. 

National Bravery. 

195. The people of this country have 
shown, by the highest proofs human nature 
can give, that wherever the path of duty and 
honor may lead, however steep and rugged it 
may be, they are ready to walk in it. 



HERE AND THERE. 93 

National Passion. 

196. There is passion enough in tlie coun- 
try to run a steam-engine in every viRage, 
and a spirit of proscription which keeps pace 
with the passion. 

The Labor of the People. 

197. The best thing in Pat|;erson, and the 
best thing in this repubhc next to liberty, 
is the labor of our people. 

Speech at Patterson, Aug. 7, 1880. 

Our Inheritance. 

198. Shall we regard with indifference 
the great inheritance which cost our sires 
their blood, because we find in their gift an 
admixture of imperfection and evil ? Surely 
there is good enough, in the contemplation 
of which every patriotic heart may say, " God 
bless my own, my native land." 

The Atlantic. 

199. The Atlantic is still the great his- 
toric sea. Even in its sunken wrecks might 
be read the record of modern nations. Who 
shall say that the Pacific will not yet be- 
come the great historic sea of the future — 
the vast amphitheatre around which shall sit 



J 



94 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

in -majesty and power the two Americas, Asia, 
Africa, and the chief colonies of Europe. God 
forbid that the waters of our national life 
should ever settle to the dead level of a wave- 
less calm. It would be the stagnation of 
death, the ocean grave of individual liberty. 

National Discipline. 

200. I look forward with joy and hope to 
the day when our brave people, one in heart, 
one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, 
shall see that the darkness through which we 
have traveled was but a part of that stern 
but beneficent discipline by which the great 
Disposer of events has been leading us on to 
a higher and nobler national life. 

National Perpetuity. 

201. The hope of our national perpetuity 
rests upon that perfect individual freedom 
which shall forever keep up the circuit of per- 
petual change. 

Our Duty. 

202. It is the high privilege and sacred 
duty of those now living to educate their suc- 
cessors and fit them by intelligence and vir- 
tue for the inheritance which awaits them. 



HERE AND THERE. 95 

In this beneficent work sections and races 
sliould be forgotten and partisanship should 
be unknown. Let our people find a new 
meaning in the divine oracle, which declares 
that "a little child shall lead them," for our 
little children will soon control the destinies 

of the Republic. inaugural Address. 

The Final Reconciliation. 

203. We may hasten, or we may retard, 
but we cannot prevent the final reconciliation. 
Is it not possible for us now to make a truce 
with time by anticipating and accepting its 
inevitable verdict ? Enterprises of the high- 
est importance to our moral and material well- 
being invite us and offer ample scope for the 
employment of our best powers. Let all our 
people, leaving behind them the battle-fields of 
dead issues, move forward, and in the strength 
of liberty and the restored Union, win the 
grander victories of peace. 



Ibid. 



Campaign Discipline. 

204. The campaign has been fruitful to 
me in the discipline that comes from endur- 
ance and patience. I hope defeat will not 
sour me, nor success disturb the poise which 
I have sought to gain by the experiences of 



96 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

life. From this edge of the conflict I give you 
my hand and heart, as in all the other days of 

our friendship. Private Letter, Nov. 1, 18S0. 

A Great Age. 

205. This is really a great time to live in, 
if any of us can only catch the cue of it. 

Private Letter, Feb. 16, 1861. 



The Need of the Hour. 

206. We want a man who, standing on a 
mountain height, sees all the achievements of 
our past history, and carries in his heart the 
memory of all its glorious deeds, and who, 
looking forward, prepares to meet the labor 
and the dangers to come. 

Speech Nominating Hon. John Sherman. 



Useful Powers. 

207. We should enlist both the pride and 
the selfishness of the people on the side of 
good order and peace. 

Dishonor too Costly for the People. 

208. The people of the United States can 
afford to make any sacrifice for their country, 
and the history of the last war is proof of 
their willingness; but the humblest citizen 



HERE AND THERE. 97 

cannot afford to do a mean or a dishonorable 
thing to save even this glorious Republic. 

Speech on the Currenaj, July 15, 1868. 

/ 
" Citizenship, 

209. Shall we enlarge the boundaries of 
citizenship and make no provision to increase 
the intelligence of the citizen ? 

Bureau of Education Speech, July 8, 1866. 
National Industries. 

210. When we recognize the fact that 
artisans and their products are essential to the 
well-being of our country, it follows that there 
is no dweller in the humblest cottac^e on our 

o 

remotest frontier who has not a deep personal 
interest in the legislation that shall promote 
these great national industries. 

Liberty and Peace. 

211. Let us seek liberty and peace, under 
the law ; and, following the pathway of our 
fathers, preserve the great legacy they have 
committed to our keeping. 

Native Talent. 

212. For every village, state, and nation, 
there is an aggregate of native talent which 



98 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

God has given, and b}^ which, together with 
his Providence, he leads that nation on, and 
thus leads the ^yorld. In the light of these 
truths we affirm that no man can understand 
the history of any nation, or of the world, who 
does not recognize in it the power of God, and 
behold His stately goings forth as He walks 
amons: the nations. It is His hand that is 
moving the vast superstructure of human his- 
tory, and though but one of the windows were 
unfurnished, like that of the Arabian palace, 
yet all the powers of earth could never com- 
plete it without the aid of the Divine Ar- 
chitect. 

The Mississippi. 

213. I believe the time will come when 
the liberal-minded statesmanship of this coun- 
try will devise a wise and comprehensive sys- 
tem, that will harness the powers of this great 
river to the material interests of America, so 
that not only all the people who live on its 
banks and the banks of its confluents, but all 
the citizens of the Republic, whether dwellers 
in the central valley or on the slope of either 
ocean, will recognize the importance of pre- 
serving and perfecting this great natural and 
material bond of national union between the 



OUR FOREFATHERS. 99 

North and the South, — a bond to be so 
strengthened by commerce and intercourse 
that it can never be severed. 

Mississippi River Bill, June 21, 1879. 
Sovereignty. 

214. I believe that no man will ever be 
able to clironicle all the evils that have re- 
sulted to this nation from the abuse of the 
words " sovereign " and " sovereignty." 

Speecii agaiasl the Camden and Ainboy Railroad, March 31, 1864. 



OUR FOREFATHERS. 

The Patrimony of the Colonists. 

215. In their struggle with the forces of 
nature, the ability to labor was the richest 
patrimony of the colonists. 

The Sacrifice for Self-government. 

216. We cannot overestimate the fervent 
love of liberty, the intelligent courage, and 
the saving common-sense with which our 
fathers made the great experiment of self- 
government. Inaugural Address. 



100 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

A Great Quality. 

217. If I were to state to-day the single 
quality tluit appears to me most aduiinible 
among the fathers of the Revohition, I should 
say it was this: that amidst all the passions 
of war, waged against a perfidious enemy, 
from beyond the sea, aided by a savage enemy 
on our own shores, our fathers exhibited so 
wonderful a restraint, so great a care to ob- 
serve the forms of law, to protect the rights 
of the minority, to preserve all those great 
rights that had come down to them from the 
common law, so that when they had achieved 
their independence they were still a law-abid- 
ing people. 

Speech accepting the Statues of Winthrop and Adams. 

Samuel Adams. 

218. I doubt if any man equaled Samuel 
Adams in formulating and uttering the fierce, 
clear, and inexorable logic of the Revolution. 

219. The men who pointed out the patli- 
waj^to freedom by the light of religion as well 
as of law, w^ere the foremost promoters of 
American Independence. And of these, Ad- 
ams was unquestionably chief. 



OUR FOREFATHERS. 101 

George "Wasliington. 

220. Eternity alone will reveal to the 
human race its debt of gratitude to the peer- 
less and immortal name of Washington. 

221. Hamilton was the master of a bril- 
liant style, clear and bold in conception, and 
decisive in execution. Jefferson was pro- 
foundly imbued with a philosophic spirit, 
could formulate the aspirations of a brave 
and free people in all the graces of powerful 
rhetoric ; and other master-minds of that pe- 
riod added their great and valuable contribu- 
tions to the common stock ; but, whether in 
the camp or in the cabinet, the quality that 
rose above all the other great gifts of that 
period was the comprehensive and unerring 
judgment of Washington. It was that all- 
embracing sense, that calnmess of solid judg- 
ment that made him easily chief. Not only 
the first of his age, but foremost " in the 
foremost files of time." 

The Declaration of Independence. 

222. The great doctrines of the Declara- 
tion germinated in the hearts of our fathers, 
and were developed under the new influences 
of this wilderness world, by the same subtle 



102 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

inystery wliicli brings forth the rose from the 
germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to 
tliemselves the great truths were growing 
under the new conditions, until, like the cen- 
tury-phmt, they blossomed into the matcliless 
beauty of the Declaration of Independence, 
whose fruitage increased and increasing we 
enjoy to-day. 



THE GERMS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 
The Common Defense. 

223. We provide for the common defense 
by a system which promotes the general wel- 
fare. House of Representatives, April 1, 1S70. 

The Light and Life of the Nation. 

224. The life and light of a nation are 
inseparable. 

The Union and Congress. 

225. The Union and the Congress must 
share the same fate. They must rise or fall 
together. 

The Germ of our Institutions. 

226. The germ of our political institu- 



THE GERMS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 103 

tions, the priniary cell from wliicli they were 
evolved, was in the New England town, and 
the vital force, the informing soul of the town, 
was the town meeting, which for all local con- 
cerns was king, lords, and commons in one. 

The Covenant. 

227. While the Mayflower was passing 
Cape Cod and seeking an anchorage, in the 
midst of the storm, her brave passengers sat 
down in the little cabin and drafted and 
si£,aied a covenant which contains the germ of 
American liberty. How familiar to the Amer- 
ican habit of mind are these declarations of 
the Pilgrim covenant of 1620. 

House of Representatives, Dec. 17, 1876. 

Virginia and Massachusetts. 

228. Virginia and Massachusetts were 
the two focal centres from which sprang the 
life-forces of this Republic. They were, in 
many ways, complements of each other, each 
supplying what the other lacked, and both 
uniting to endow the Republic with its noblest 
and most enduring qualities. i^id. 

The "Will of the Majority. 

229. Peace, hberty, and personal security 



104 GARFIELD-S WORDS. 

are blessings as common aiid universal as sun- 
shine and showers and fruitful seasons ; and 
all sprang from a single source, — the princi- 
ple declared in the Pilgrim covenant of 1620, 
— that all owed due submission and obedi- 
ence to the huvfully expressed will of the 
majority. This is not one of the doctrines of 
our political system, it is the system itself. It 
is our political firmament, in which all other 
truths are set, as stars in heaven. It is the 
encasing air, the breath of the nation's life. 

Our Theory of Law. 

230. Our theory of law is free consent. 
That is the granite foundation of our whole 
superstructure. Nothing in the Republic can 
be law without consent, — the free consent of 
the House ; the free consent of the Senate ; 
the free consent of the Executive ; or, if he 
refuse it, the free consent of two thirds of these 

bodies. Extra Session, March 29, 1879. 



THE COXSTITUTION. 

The Idea of the Constitution. 

231. The men who created this Constitu- 
tion also set it in operation, and developed 



OUR INSTITUTIONS. 105 

their own idea of its character. That idea 
was unlike any other that then prevailed upon 
the earth. They made the general w(^lfai-e of 
the people the great source and i'oundation of 
the common defense. 

Absolute Power. 

232. It was the purpose of our fathers to 
lodge absolute power nowhere ; to leave each 
department independent within its own 
sphere ; yet, in every case, responsible for the 
exercise of its discretion. Atlantic Monthly. 

Boundaries of Freedom. 

233. Under this Constitution boundaries 
of freedom have been enlarged, the founda- 
tions of order and peace have been strength- 
ened, and the growth of our people in all the 
better elements of national life has vindicated 
the wisdom of the founders and given new 

hope to tl^eir descendants. inaugural Address. 



OUR INSTITUTIOXS. 

National Institutions. 

234. It matters little what may be the 
forms of national institutions, if the life, free- 
dom, and growth of society are secured. 



106 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

An Empire. 

235. The last eight decades have wit- 
nessed an empire spring up in the full pan- 
oply of lusty life, from a trackless wilderness. 

Understanding our Institutions. 

236. No man who has not lived among 
us can understand one thing about our in- 
stitutions; no man who has been born and 
reared under monarchical governments can 
understand the vast difference between theirs 
and ours. 

Society. 

237. There is no horizontal stratification 
of society in this country like the rocks in the 
earth, that hold one class down below forever- 
more, and let another come to the surface to 
sta}^ there forever. Our stratification is like 
the ocean, where ever}^ individual drop is free 
to move, and where from the sternest depths 
of the mighty deep any drop may come up to 
glitter on the highest wave that rolls. 

An Army of Artisans. 

. 238. It was the manifest intention of the 
founders of the government to provide for 
the common defense, not by standing armies 



OUR INSTITUTIONS. 107 

alone, but by raising among the people a 
greater army of artisans, Avliose intelligence 
and skill sliould powerfully contribute to the 
safety and glory of the nation. 

Letter of Acceptance. 
Our Duties. 

239. We should do nothing inconsistent 
•with the spirit and genius of our institutions. 
We sliould do nothing for revenge, but every- 
thing for security ; nothing foi* the past; ev- 
erything for the present and the future. 

Difficult Problems. 

240. The intelligence and national spirit 
of our people exhibit their capacity for deal- 
ing with difficult problems. Those who saw 
the terrible elements of destruction that burst 
upon us twelve years ago in the fury of the 
civil war, would have been called dreamers 
and enthusiasts had they predicted that 1873 
would witness the conflict ended, its cause an- 
nihilated, the bitterness and hatred it occa- 
sioned nearly gone, and the nation with union 
and unity restored, smiling again over half a 
million soldiers' graves ! 

The Glory of our Institutions. 

241. Individuals may wear for a time the 



108 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

glory of our institutions, but they carry it not 
to the grave with them. Like rain-drops from 
heaven, they may pass through the circle of 
the shining bow and add to its lustre, but 
when they have sunk in the earth again, the 
proud arch still spans the sky and shines 
gloriously on. 

A Cause of Alarm. 

242. The most alarming feature of our 
situation is the fact that so many citizens of 
high character and solid judgment pay but 
little attention to the sources of political 
power, to the selection of those wdio shall 
make their laws. The clergy, the faculties of 
colleges, and many of the leading business 
men of the community, never attend the town- 
ship caucus, the cit}^ primaries, or the county 
conventions; but they allow the less intelli- 
gent and the more selfish and corrupt mem- 
bers of the community to make the slates and 
"run the machine" of politics. They wait 
until the machine has done its work, and 
then, in surprise and horror at the ignorance 
and corruption in public office, sigh for the 
return of that mythical period called the 
" better and purer days of the Republic." 

"^ Century in Congress,"' Atlantic Monthly, July, 1877. 



OUR INSTITUTIONS. 109 

Industrial Feudalism. 

243. The consolidation of our great indus- 
trial and commercial companies, the power 
they wield, and the relations they sustain to 
the State and to the industry of the people, 
do not fall far short of Fourier's definition 
of commercial or industrial feudalism. The 
modern barons, more powerful than their mili- 
tary prototypes, own our greatest highways, 
levy tribute at will upon all our vast in- 
dustries. And, as the old feudalism was 
finally controlled and subordinated only by 
the combined efforts of the kings and the 
people of the free cities and towns, so our 
modern feudalism can be subordinated to the 
public good only by the great body of the 
people, acting through their governments by 
wise and just laws. 

Speech on the Railroad Problein, June 22, 1874. 



Our Success. 

244. Reviewing the whole period, we 
have the right to say that the wisdom of our 
institutions has been vindicated, and our con- 
fidence in their stability has been strength- 
ened. Legislation has been directed more 
and more to the eirlargement of private rights 
and the promotion of the interests of labor. 



110 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

It has been devoted not to the glory of a dy- 
nasty, but to the welfare of a people. Slav- 
ery, with the aristocracy of caste which it 
engendered, and the degradation of labor 
which it produced, has disappeared. With- 
out undue exultation we may declare that 
the bells of the new year 

*' Ring out a slowly d^'ing cause, 

And ancient forms of party strife; 
Ring in the nobler modes of life, 
With sweeter manners, purer laws." 

We have learned the great lesson, applicable 
alike to nations and to men : — 

"Self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control — 
These three alone lead on to sovereign power." 

Resumption Speech, Jan. 2, 1879. 



THE REPUBLIC. 
The Stability of the Republic. 

245. A republic can wield the vast en- 
ginery of Avar without breaking down the 
safeguards of liberty ; can suppress insurrec- 
tion and put down rebellion, liowever formi- 
dable, without destroying the bulwarks of law ; 
can, by the might of its armed millions, pre- 
serve and defend both nationality and liberty. 



THE REPUBLIC. Ill 

The Origin of the Republic. 

246. We have seen that our Republic 
differs in its origin from all the monaivliies 
of the world. We may also see that it ditfers 
widely from all other republics of ancient or 
modern times. These all centred round a 
conquering hero or a powerful city, — ours 
round a principle. In the brightest days of 
the Grecian Republic, its strength and glory 
rested upon the life and fortunes of Pericles. 
In the old Dutch Republic of Holland and 
the later establishments of modern Germany, 
freedom was of the city and not of the people. 
The burghers were the only freemen, and 
they constituted an aristocracy more haughty 
and imperious than the hereditary peers of 
England. The peasants of the rural districts, 
the toiling thousands, were hardly known to 
the government, except that they bore many 
of its heavy burdens. But here, cities are 
not tyrannies, and freedom in her best estate 
is found in the green fields of the country, 
among the hardy tillers of the soil. 

Ravenna, July 4, 1S60. 
Monarchy vs. Republic. 

247. A monarchy is more easily over- 
thrown than a republic, because its sover- 



112 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

eignty is concentrated, and a single blow, if 
it be powerful enough, will crush it. 

Private Letter, Feb. 16, 1861. 
The Power of the Citizen. ' 

248. In the Old World, under the despot- 
ism of Europe, the masses of ignorant men, 
mere inert masses, are moved upon and con- 
trolled by the intelligent and cultivated aris- 
tocracy. But in this Republic, where the 
government rests upon the will of the people, 
every man has an active power for good and 
evil, and the great question is, will he think 
rightly or wrongl}^ ? 

House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 
The Dogma of Divine Right. 

249o We have happily escaped the dogma 
of the divine right of kings. Let us not fall 
into the equally pernicious error that multi- 
tude is divine because it is a multitude. 

Vox Populi Vox Dei. 

250. It is only when the people speak 
truth and justice that their voice can be called 
"the voice of God." 

Personal Ambition. 

251. To all our means of culture is added 



THE NATION. 11 o 

that powerful incentive to personal ambition 
wliich springs from the genius of our govern- 
ment. The pathway to honorable distinction 
lies open to all. No post of honor so high 
but the poorest boy may hope to reach it. 
It is the pride of every American, that many 
cherished names, at whose mention our hearts 
beat with a quicker bound, were worn by the 
sons of poverty, who conquered obscurity and 
became fixed stars in our firmament. 



THE NATION. 

The Watipn's Life. 

252. The nation has a life of its own as 
distinctly defined as the life of an individual. 
The signs of its growth and the periods of its 
development make the issues declare them- 
selves; and the man or the political party 
that does not discover them, has not learned 
the character of the nation's life. 

Fanueil Hall, 1873. 
The Nation's Purpose. 

253. Methods and details of management 
are of slight importance in comparison with 
the central purpose of the nation. 

House of Representatives, Feb., 1376. 

8 



114 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

The Nation's History. 

254. It is well to know the history of 
those magnificent nations whose origin is lost 
in fable, and whose epitaphs were written a 
thousand years ago ; but if we cannot know 
both, it is far better to study the history of 
our own nation, whose origin we can trace 
to the freest and noblest aspirations of the 
human heart. 

Territory. 

255. After all, territory is but the body of 
a nation. The people who inhabit its hills 
and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life. In 
them dwells its hope of immortality. Among 
them, if anywhere, are to be found its chief 
elements of destruction. 

Kepression and Expression. 

256. There are two classes of forces whose 
action and reaction determine the condition of 
a nation; the forces of repression and ex- 
pression. The one acts from without, limits, 
curbs, restrains. The other acts from within, 
expands, enlarges, propels. Constitutional 
forms, statutory limitations, conservative cus- 
toms, belong to the first. The free play of 
individual hfe, opinion and action, belong to 
the seeond. If these forces be happily bal- 



THE NATION. 115 

anced, if there be a wise conservation and 
correlation of both, a nation may enjoy the 
double blessing of progress and permanence. 

The Supremacy of the Nation. 

257. The supremacy of the nation and its 
laws should be no longer a subject of debate. 
That discussion, which for half a century 
threatened the existence of the Union, was 
closed at last in the high court of war; by a 
decree from which there is no appeal : that 
the Constitution and the laws made in pursu- 
ance thereof are and shall continue to be the 
supreme law of the land, binding ahke upon 

the States and the people. inaugural Address. 

Facing to the Front. 

258. It is manifest that the nation is 
resolutely facing to the front, resolved to 
employ its best energies in developing the 
great possibilities of the future. Sacredly 
preserving whatever has been gained to lib- 
erty and good government during the century, 
our people are determined to leave behind 
them all those bitter controversies concerning 
things which have been irrevocably settled, 
and the further discussion of which can only 
stir up strife and delay the onward march. 



Ibid 



116 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

Tlie Fountains of our Strength. 

259. The fountain of our strength as a 
nation springs from the private life and the 
voluntary efforts of fort3^-five millions of peo- 
ple. Each for himself confronts the problem 
of life and amid its varied conditions develops 
the forces with which God has endowed him. 
Meantime the nation moves on in its great 
orbit with a life and destiny of its own, each 
year calling to its aid those qualities and 
forces which are needed for its preservation 
and its glory. Now it needs the prudence of 
the counselor, now the wisdom of the law- 
giver, and now the shield of the warrior to 
cover its heart in battle. And when the 
hour and the man have met, and the needed 
work has been done, the nation crowns her 
heroes and makes them her own forever. 

Oration on the Death of O. P. Morton. 
The Behavior of the Nation. 

260. The behavior of a great nation in 
the administration of its laws at a critical mo- 
ment, is more important than the fate of any 
one man or party. We have reached the place 
where the road is marked by no footprint, and 
we must make a direct line to be fit to follow 
after we are dead. It is only at such times 



TEE NATION. 117 

that the domain of law is enlarged and the 
safeguard of liberty is increased. I confess 
to you that I do not feel adequate to the task ; 
but I shall do my best to point out a worthy 
way to the light and the right. 

Private Letter, Jan. 4., 1877. 

The People of the RepubHc. 

261. The peojDle of a republic like ours 
are peculiarly like a single great individual 
man, full of passions — prejudices often, — 
but with a great heart, despising anything 
like show or pretense, and always striving for- 
ward in a general right direction. 

From a Private Letter. 
Society. 

262. Here society is a restless and surging 
sea. The roar of the billows, the dash of the 
wave, is forever in our ears. Even the angry 
hoarseness of breakers is not unheard. But 
there is an understratum of deep, calm sea, 
which the breath of the wildest tempest can 
never reach. Thero is, deep down in tho 
hearts of the American people, a strong and 
abiding love of our country and its liberty, 
which no surface-storms of passion can ever 
shake. That kind of instability which arises 



118 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

from a free movement and interchange of po- 
sition among the members of society, which 
brings one drop np to ghsten for a time in the 
crest of the highest wave, and then give phice 
to another, while it goes down to mingle again 
with the millions below ; such instability is 
the surest pledge of permanence. On such 
instability the eternal fixedness of the universe 
is based. Each planet, in its circling orbit, 
returns to the goal of its departure, and on 
the balance of these wildly-rolling spheres 
God has planted the broad base of His mighty 
works. So the hope of our national perpe- 
tuity rests upon that perfect individual free- 
dom which shall forever keep up tlie circuit 

of perpetual change. Ravenna, July 4, I860. 



THE COHESION OF THE REPUBLIC. 

Deciding the Election. 

263. Not here, in this brilliant circle 
where fifteen thousand men and women are 
assembled, is the destiny of the Republic to 
be decreed ; not here, where I sec the en- 
thusiastic faces of seven hundred and fifty-six 
delegates waiting to cast their votes into the 



THE COHESION OF THE REPUBLIC. 119 

urn and determine the choice of their party ; 
but by four million Republican firesides, where 
the thoughtful fathers, with wives and chil- 
dren about them, with the calm thoughts in- 
spired by love of home and love of country, 
with the history of the past, the hopes of the 
future, and the knowledge of the great men 
who have adorned and blessed our nation in 
days gone by — there God prepares the ver- 
dict that shall determine the wisdom of our 
work to-night. Not in Chicago in the heat of 
June, but in the sober quiet that comes be- 
tween now and November, in the silence of 
deliberate judgment, will this great question 

be settled. speech Nominating Hon. John Sherman. 

The American Citizen. 

264. It was said in a welcome to one who 
came to England to be a part of her glory — 
and all the nation spoke when it was said, — 

"Normans and Saxons and Danes are we, 
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee." 

And we say to-night, of all nations, of all the 
people, soldiers, and civilians, there is one 
name that welds us all into one. It is the 
name of American citizen, under the union 
and under the glory of the flag that led us 
to victory and to peace. 

Washington, November, 1880. 



120 GARFIELD'S WORDS, 

THE SUFFRAGE. 

Suffrage and Safety. 

265. Suffrage and Safety, like Liberty 
and Union, are one and inseparable. 

Ravenna, July 4, 1860. 
Violation of the Suffrage. 

266. To violate the freedom and sanctity 
of the suffrage is more than an evil ; it is a 
crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the 
government itself. ' Suicide is not a remedy; 
If in other lands it be high treason to com- 
pass the death of a king, it should be counted 
no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign 

power and stifle its voice. inaugural Address. 

Unsettled Questions. 

267. It has been said that unsettled ques- 
tions have no pity for the repose of nations. 
It should be said, with the utmost emphasis, 
that this question of suffrage will never give 
repose or safety to the nation until each State 
within its own jurisdiction makes and keeps 
the ballot free and pure by the strong sanc- 
tions of the law. ■^*'^- 

Ignorance in the Voter. 

268. The danger which arises from ig- 
norance in the voter cannot be denied. Md. 



THE SUFFRAGE. 121 

The Disaster of Vice. 

269. We have no standard by wliicli to 
measure the disaster that may be brought 
npon us by ignorance and vice in the citizens 
when joined to corruption and fraud in the 
suffrage. ibid. 

^ The "Voters of the Union. 

270. The voters of the Union who make 
and unmake Constitutious, and upon whose 
will hangs the destinies of our government, 
can transmit supreme authority to no succes- 
sor save the coming generation of voters, who 
are the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that 
generation comes to its inheritance blinded 
by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall 
of the Republic will be certain and remedi- 
less. Ibid. 

Disfranchised Peasantry. 

271. There can be no permanent disfran- 
chised peasantry in the United States. ma. 

Our National Safety. 

272. In a word, our national safety de- 
mands that the fountains of political power 
shall be made pure by intelligence and kept 
pure by vigilance. 



V 



/ 



122 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

Our Sovereign's Danger. 

273. The source of our sovereign's su- 
preme clanger, the point where his life is vul- 
nerable, is at the ballot-box where his will is 
declared ; and if he cannot stand by that cra- 
dle of our sovereign's heir-apparent and pro- 
tect it to the uttermost against all assassins 
and assailants, we have no government and 
no safety for the future. 

The Dangers of Suffrage. 

274. We, confront the dangers of suffrage 
by the blessings of universal education. 



THE LESSON OF THE MONUMENTS. 

What They Teach. 

* 275. What does the monument mean? 
and, What will the monument teach ? Let 
me try and ask you for a moment to help 
me answer, what does the monument mean. 
Oh ! the monument means a world of mem- 
ories, a world of deeds, and a world of tears, 
and a world of glories. You know, thousands 
know, what it is to offer up your life to the 
country, and that is no small thing, as every 
soldier knows. Let me put the question to 



THE LESSON OF THE MONUMENTS. 123 

yoii : For a moment, suppose your country in 
the awfully embodied form of majestic law 
should stand above you and say, " I want 
your life. Come up here on the platform and 
offer it." How many would walk up before 
that majestic presence and say, " Here I am, 
take this life and use it for your great needs." 
And yet almost two millions of men made 
that answer, and a monument stands yonder 
to commemorate their answer. That is one 
of its meanings. But, my friends, let me try 
you a little further. To give up life is much, 
for it is to give up wife, and home, and child, 
and ambition. But let me test you this way 
further. Suppose this awfully majestic form 
should call out to you, and say, '' I ask you 
to give up health and drag yourself, not dead, 
but half alive, through a miserable existence 
for long years, until you perish and die in 
your crippled and hopeless condition. I ask 
you to volunteer to do that," and it calls for 
a higher reach of patriotism and self-sacrifice, 
but hundreds of thousands of you soldiers did 
that. That is what the monument means 
also. But let me ask you to go one step fur- 
ther. Suppose your country should say, 
" Come here, on this platform, and in my 
name, and for my sake, consent to be idiots, 



124 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

— consent that your very brain and intellect 
shall be broken down into hopeless idiocy for 
my sake." How many could be found to 
make that venture ? And yet there are thou- 
sands, and that with their eyes wide open to 
the horrible consequences, obeyed that call. 

And let me tell how one hundred thousand 
of our soldiers were prisoners of war, and to 
many of them when death was stalking near, 
when famine was climbing up into their hearts, 
and idiocy was threatening all that was left 
of their intellects, the gates of their prison 
stood open every day, if they would quit, de- 
sert their flag and enlist under the flag of the 
enemy, and out of one hundred and eighty 
thousand not two per cent, ever received the 
liberation from death, starvation, and all that 
might come to them ; but they took all these 
horrors and all these sufferings in preference 
to going back upon the flag of their country 
and the glory of its truth. Great God ! was 
ever such measure of patriotism reached by 
any man on this earth before. That is what 
your monument means. By the subtle chem- 
istry that no man knows, all the blood that 
was shed by our brethren, — all the lives that 
were devoted, all the grief that was felt, — at 
last crystalhzed itself into granite, rendered 



THE LESSON OF THE MONUMENTS. 125 

immortal tlie great trutli for whicli they died, 
and it stands tbere to-day, and that is what 
your monument means. 

Oracion at Painesville, O., 1680, Dedication oj a &uiuiefs Monu- 
ment. 

A Story of Greece. 

276. Now what does it teach? What 
will it teach ? Why, I remember the story 
of one of the old conquerors of Greece, who, 
when he had traveled in his boyhood over tho 
battle-fields where Miltiades had won victo- 
ries and set up trophies, returning ho said: 
" These trophies of Miltiades will never let 
me sleep." Why, something had taught him 
from the chiseled stone a lesson that he could 
never forget, and, fellow-citizens, that silent 
sentinel, that crowned granito column, will 
look down upon the boys that will walk these 
streets for generations to come, and will not 
let them sleep when their country calls them. 

loid. 
The Lesson of Endurance. 

277. That is its lesson, and it is the les- 
son of endurance for what we believe, and it 
is the lesson of sacrifices for what we think — 
the lesson of heroism for what we mean to 
sustain — and that lesson cannot be lost to a 



126 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

people like this. It is not a lesson of revenge, 
it is not a lesson of wrath, it is the grand, 
sweet, broad lesson of the immortalit}^ of the 
truth that we hope will soon cover, as with 
the grand Shekinah of light and glory, all 
parts of this Republic, from the lakes to tlie 
gulf. l^id- 



PART III. — WORDS POLITICAL. 

Such selections as are included under this head relate more 
particularly to politics, parties, political, financial, and trade 
questions, and the government, than what have been collected in 
Parts I. and II. 



Emigration. 

278. Emigration follows the path of lib- 
erty. 

Secession. 

279. Secession is the tocsin of eternal 
war. 

The "Way We Legislate. 

280. We legislate for the people of the 
United States, not for the whole world ; and 
it is our glory that the American laborer is 
more intelligent and better paid than his for- 
eign competitor. Our country cannot be inde- 
pendent unless its people, with their abundant 
natural resources, possess the requisite skill at 
any time to clothe, arm, and equip themselves 



128 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

for war, and in time of peace to produce all 
the necessary implements of labor. 

Letter of Acceptance. 
The Duty of Good Men. 

281. It is as much the duty of all good 
men to protect and defend the reputation of 
worthy public servants as to detect public 
rascals. 

Coercion. 

282. Coercion is the basis of every law in 
the universe, — human or divine. A law is 
no law without coercion behind it. 

The Judgment of Leaders. 

283. The general judgment of all men 
who deserve to be called the leaders of Amer- 
ican thought, ought to be considered w^orth 
something in an American House of Repre- 
sentatives on the discussion of a great topic. 

Speech on the Finances, Nov. 16, 1877. 

The Movement of the Republic. 

284. Over this vast horizon of interests, 
North and South, above all party prejudices 
and personal wrong-doing, above our battle 
hosts and our victorious cause, above all that 
we hoped for and won, or you hoped for and 



HERE AND THERE, 129 

lost, is the grand onward movement of the 
Republic to perpetuate its glory, to save lib- 
erty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice 
to all, to protect and foster all these priceless 
principles until they shall have crystallized 
into the form of enduring law and become in- 
wrought into the life and habits of our peo- 

Our Theory of Government. 

285. Our theory of government is based 
upon the belief that the suffriige carries with 
it individual responsibility, stimulates the ac- 
tivity, and promotes the intelligence and self- 
respect of the voter. 

North American Review, March, 1879. 

The Vicarious Atonement. 

286. Whatever we may believe theolog- 
ically, I do not believe in the doctrine of vi- 
carious atonement in politics. 

House of Representatives, June 12, 1876. 
The Lessons of Charity. 

287. To those most noble men. Democrats 
and Republicans, who together fought for the 
Union, I commend all the lessons of charity 
that the wisest and most beneficent men have 

taught. Ibid. 



130 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

Political Training. 

288. Probably no American j^onth, unless 
we except John Quincy Adams, was ever 
trained with special reference to the political 
service of his country. 

Oration on the Death of O. P. Morton. 

The Third House. 

289. In coming hither these living repre- 
sentatives have passed undei* the dome and 
through that beautiful and venerable hall 
which on another occasion I have ventured to 
call the Third House of American Represen- 
tatives, that silent assembly whose members 
have received their high credentials at the im- 
partial hand of history. Year by year we seo 
the circle of its immortal membership enlarg- 
ing ; year by year we see the elect of their 
country in eloquent silence taking their places 
in this American Pantheon, bringing within 
its sacred precincts the wealth of those immor- 
tal memories which made their lives illustri- 
ous ; and year by year that august assembly is 
teaching deeper and grander lessons to those 
who serve in these more ephemeral houses of 
Congress. 

Speech on accepting Carpenter's Picture of the Sign- 
ing the Emancipaiion Proclamation. 



HERE AND THERE. 131 

A Picker-up of Bird-seed. 

290. It does not answer my proposition to 
ramble over the speeeh and pick up a morsel 
here and there ; to leave tlie line of debate 
and become what the Grecians called a mere 
sperma-logos^ a pieker-up of bird-seed, a snap- 
per-up of unconsidered trifles. 

House of Representatives, March 6, 1878. 

Military Science. 

291. It would be interesting to trace the 
changes through which military science has 
passed during the last century. We should 
find, especially during the last half century, 
that at the end of each great war some lead- 
ing implement was mustered out of service 
and replaced by a better one ; and every such 
improvement has required a corresponding 
change in the prevailing methods of warfare. 

Norlk American Review, March, 1878. 
Female Suffrage. 

292. Laugh as we may, put it aside as 
a jest if we will, keep it out of Congress or 
political campaigns, still, the woman question 
is rising in our horizon larger than the size of 
a man's hand ; and some solution, ere long, 
that question must find. 

Address before Washington Business College. 



132 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

Political Catch-words. 

293. We are apt to be deluded into false 
security by political catcJi-words, devised to 
flatter rather than instruct. 

Address before the Lileranj Societies of Hudson College. 
The Dollar. 

294. The dollar is the gauge that measures 
every blow of the hammer, 

House of Representatives, Feb., 1876. 

An Ideal Census. 

295. If we had the power to photograph 
the American people in one second all in one 
picture, and get the conditions that the in- 
quiries of the census could give us all at once, 
as through a telephone, and have it all re- 
corded, it would be the ideal perfect census. 

House of Representatives, Feb. 18, 1879. 

Church and State. 

296. The division between Church and 
State ought to be so absolute that no church 
proptM-ty anywhere in the state or nation 
should be exempt from taxation ; for if you 
exempt the property of any church organiza- 
tion, ti) that extent you impose a church tax 
upon the whole community. 

House of Representatives, June, 1874. 



HERE AND THERE. 133 

The Democratic Principle. 

297. Our faith in the democratic princi- 
ple rests upon the belief that intelligent men 
will see that their highest political good is in 
liberty, regulated by just and equal laws ; and 
that in the distribution of political poAver it 
is safe to follow the maxim, '' Each for all, 
and all for each." 

The Lights of Practical Science. 

298. As the government lights our coasts 
for the protection of mariners and the benefit 
of commerce, so it should give to the tillers 
of the soil lights of practical science and ex- 
perience. Inaugural Address. 

The Duty of Congress. 

299. In my judgment it is the duty of 
Congress, while respecting to the uttermost 
the conscientious convictions and religious 
scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within 
its jurisdiction all criminal practices, and es- 
pecially of that class which destroy the family 
relations and endanger social order. Nor can 
any ecclesiastical organization be safely per- 
mitted to usurp, in the smallest degree, the 
functions and powers of the natior^al govern- 
ment. Ibid. 



13-i GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

THE FEELINGS OF A STATESMAN. 
The Life Behind. 

300. Behind this public life lies a world 
of history, of quiet, beautiful, home-life, within 
which tlie religious opinions and sentiments 
are manifested — a world of affection, the 
features of which are rarely brought out in 

this lorum. oration, Death of Con^essman Starkweather. 

The Isolation of Congress. 

301. I have often been saddened with 
the thought that in no place where my life 
has been cast have I seen so much necessary 
isolation as here. ibid. 

An Isolated Place. 

302. In some respects this hall is the 
coldest, the most isolated place in which the 
human heart can find a temporary residence. 

Ibid. 
The Final Departure. 

303. On many accounts my transfer to 
the Senate brings sad recollections. Do you 
remember the boy " Joe " in one of Dickens' 
novels, who said that everybody was always 
telling him to " move on," that, whenever he 
stopped to look in at a window to long for 



THE FEELINGS OF A STATESMAN. 135 

gingerbread, or catch a glimpse of the pictures, 
the voice of the inexorable policeman made 
him '' move on ? " I have felt something of 
this in the order that sends me away from the 
house. It is a final departure. 

Private Letter, Jan. 30, 1880. 
The "World's Wrath. 

304. For twenty-two years, with the ex- 
ception of the last few days, I have been in 
the public service. To-night I am a private 
citizen. To-morrow I shall be called to as- 
sume new responsibilities, and on the day 
after the broadside of the world's wrath will 
strike. It will strike hard. I know it, and 
you will know it. 

Class Dinner, Washington, March 3, 1S81. 
The Presidential Fever. 

305. This honor comes to me unsought. 
I have never had the Presidential fever ; not 
even for a day ; nor have I it to-night. I 
have no feeling of elation in view of the posi- 
tion I am called upon to fill. I would thank 
God were I to-day a free lance in the House 
or the Senate. But it is not to be, and I will 
go forward to meet the responsibilities and 
discharge the duties that are before me with 
all the firmness and ability I can command. 



136 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

POLITICAL PARTIES. 

The Birth of Parties. 

306. Political parties, like poets, are 
born, not nuiile. No act of political niediaiucs, 
however wise, can manufacture to order and 
make a platform, and put a party on it which 
will live and flourish. 

Immortal Ideas. 

307. Every great political party that has 
done this country any good has given to it 
some immortal ideas that have outlived all 
the members of that party. 

Speech on the Death of Lincoln. 

The Death of Parties and Liberty. 

308. Organizations may change or dis- 
solve, but when parties cease to exist liberty 

will perish. Address on the Death of O. P. Morton. 

The Federalists. 

309. Whatever opinion we may now en- 
tertain of the Federalists as a party, it is 
unquestionably true that we are indebted to 
them for the str(mg points of the Constitution, 
and for the stable government they founded 
and strengthened during the administration 
of Washino-ton and Adams. 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 137 

Party Record. 

310. While it is true that no party can 
stand upon its past record alone, yet it is also 
true tliat its past shows the spirit and charac- 
ter of the organization, and enables us to judge 
what it will probably do in the future. 

The Life of Parties. 

311. Parties have an organic life and 
spirit of their own — an individuality and 
character which outlive the men who com- 
pose them ; and the spirit and traditions of 
a party should be considered in determining 
their fitness for managing the affairs of the 

nation. House of Representatives, 1880. 



The Control of Parties. 

312. The thing most desired is not how- 
to avoid the existence of parties, but how to 
keep them within proper bounds. 

House of Representatives, Oct. 22, 1877. 
The Republican Party. 

313. The R(^pul)lican party gave to the 
country a currency as national as its Hag, 
based upon the sacred faith of the ])eople. 

speech No minuting Hon. John Sherman. 



138 GARFIELD- S WORDS. 

Democratic and Republican Parties, 

314. The Democnitic and Republican par- 
ties are examples of a genuine and natural 
method of organizing political parties. The 
Democratic party in its earlier and better 
days represented the genuine aspirations and 
grand ideas of the American people, and no 
man can say it was ever manufactured at any 
particular time by any particular set of men. 
The Republican party also was a growth 
springing from the hostility of the American 
people to slavery, and they rallied around 
that central idea, an idea broad enough to 
reach all the ramifications of our whole insti- 
tutions. 



PARTY QUESTIONS. 
Party Governments. 

315. All free governments are party gov- 
ernments. Address on the Death of 0. P. Morton. 

Partisansliip. 

316. Partisanship is opinion crystallized, 
— party organizations are the scaffoldings 
whereon citizens stand while they build up 
the wall of their national temple. ibid. 



PARTY QUESTIONS. 139 

Party Amenities. 

317. The flowers that bloom over the gar- 
den wall of part}^ politics are the sweetest and 
most fragrant that bloom in the gardens of 
this world. 

Political Issues. 

318. Real political issues cannot be manu- 
factured by the leaders of political parties, 
and real ones cannot be evaded by political 

parties. FanueU Hall, 1878. 

Permanent Political Doctrines. 

319. I should like to adopt political doc- 
trines that would live longer than my dog. 

Cleveland, October 11, 1879. 

320. It is a very awkward thing indeed 
to adopt a political opinion and trust to it, 
and find that it will not live overnight. It 
would be an exceedingly awkward thing to 
go to bed alone w^ith your political doctrine, 
trusting and believing in it, thinking it is 
true, and wake up in the morning and find it 
a corpse in your arms. ^^^^' 



140 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

STATESMANSHIP. 

The Qualities of Statesmanship. 

321. Statesmanship consists rather in re- 
moving causes tlian in punishing or evading 
results. Statistical science is indispensable to 
modern statesmanship. In legislation, as in 
physical science, it is beginning to be under- 
stood that we can control terrestrial forces 
only by obeying their laws. The legislator 
must formulate in his statutes not only the 
national will, but also those great laws of 
social lite revealed by statistics. 

The Demagogue. 

322. Perhaps it is true that the dema- 
gogue will succeed when honorable statesman- 
ship will fail. If so, public life is the hoUow- 

est of all shams. private Letter, Afril 4, 1873. 

Special Training. 

323. For all the great professions known 
among Americans special training-schools 
have been established or encouraged by law 
except for that of statesmanship. And yet 
no profession requires for its successful pur- 
suit a wider range of general and special 
knowledge in a more thorough and varied cul- 
ture. Death of O. P. Morton, Jan. 18, 1878. 



LEGISLATION. 141 

/ LEGISLATION. 

Terrestrial Forces. 

324. In legislation, us in physical science, 
it is beginning to be understood that we can 
control terrestrial forces only by obeying their 
laws. 

A Measure of Value. 

325. Legislation cannot make that a meas- 
ure of value which neither possesses nor rep- 
resents any definitely ascertained value. 

The Minority. • 

326. As a general rule, long service in a 
legislative minority unfits men for the duties 
that devolve upon a niMJority. The business 
of one is to attack, of the other to defend ; of 
the one to tear down, of the other to build up. 

The Legislator and Statistics. 

327. The legislator without statistics is 
like the mariner at sea without the compass. 

A Legislator's Study. 

328. The legislator must study society 
rather than black-letter learning. 

House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 



142 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

GOVERNMENT. 

Proportion in Governments. 

329. A government made for the king- 
dom of Lilliput miglit fail to handle the forces 
of Brobdignag. 

An Artificial Giant. 

330. A government is an artificial giant, 
and the power that moves it is money — 
money raised by taxation and distributed to 
the various parts of the body politic, accord- 
ing to the discretion of ihe legislative power. 

The Powers of Government. 

331. We are accustomed to hear it said 
that the great powers of government in this 
country are divided into two classes: national 
powers and state powers. That is an incom- 
plete classification. Our fathers carefully di- 
vided all governmental powers into three 
cLasses : one tliey gave to the states, another 
to the nation ; but the third great class, com- 
prising the most precious of all powers, they 
refused to confer on the state or nation, but 
reserved to themselves. This third class of 
powers has been almost uniformly overlooked 
by men who have written and discussed the 
American system. 



CONGRESS. 143 

The Management of Governments. 

332. All free governments are managed 
by the combined wisdom and folly of the 

people. Private Letter, April 21, 1880. 

Despotism. 

333. Perhaps, as a mere matter of gov- 
ernment, a good despot would make a better 
government ; but for the education of the 
people governed, a good despotism is worse 
than freedom with its admixture of folly. 



CONGRESS. 
The Vote of Congress. 

334. In the name of common sense and 
sanity, let us take some account' of the flood, 
that a deluge means something, and try if we 
can get our bearings before we undertake to 
settle the affairs of all mankind by a vote of 
this House. 

A Safe Rule in Legislation. 

335. It is a safe and wise rule to follow, 
in all legislation, that whatever the people can 
do without legislation will be better done 
than by the incervention of the State or na- 
tion. 



H4 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

"What Congress Is. 

333. Congress lias always been and must 
always be the theatre of contending opinions; 
the torum where the opposing forces of po- 
litical philosophy meet to measure their 
strength ; where the public good must meet 
the assaults of local and sectional interests ; 
in a word, the appointed place where the na- 
tion seeks to utter its thought and register 
its will. 

337. Congress must always be the expo- 
nent of the political character and culture of 
the people, and if the next centennial does 
not find us a great nation with a great and 
worthy Congress, it will be because those who 
represent the e'nterprise, the culture, and the 
morality of the nation do not aid in control- 
ling the political forces, which are employed 
to select the men who shall occupy the great 
places of trust and power. 

"^ Century in Congress,'*^ Atlantic Monthly, Aug., 1876. 

338. I admit most freely that Congress 
may regulate the act of opening the certifi- 
cates and may regulate the work of counting, 
but it cannot push its power to regulate be- 
yond the meaning of the words that describe 



CONGRESS. 145 

the thing to be done. It cannot ingraft a ju- 
diciary system upon the word "open." It 
cannot evolve a court-martial from the word 
*' count." It cannot erect a star chamber 
upon either or both of these words. It can- 
not plant the seeds of despotism between the 
lines or words of the Constitution. 

Speech on Counting ike Electoral Vote. 
Sound Words, 

339. During tho many calm years of the 
century our pilots have grown careless of the 
course. The master of a vessel sailing down 
Lake Ontario has the whole breadth of that 
beautful inland sea for his pathway. But 
when his ship arrives at the chute of the La- 
chine there is but one pathway of safety. 
With a steady hand, a clear eye, and a brave 
heart he points his prow to the well-fixed 
landmarks on the shore and, with death on 
either hand, makes the plunge and shoots the 
rapids in safety. We too are approaching the 
narrows, and we hear the roar of the angry 
waters below and the muttering of tho sullen 
thunder overhead. Unteriified by breakers 
or tempest, let us steer our course by the Con- 
stitution of our fathers, and we shall neither 
sink in the rapids, nor compel our children 

10 



146 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

to shoot Niagara and perish in the whirl- 
pool. ^ ^^'^• 

A Menace. 

340. When you tell me that civil war is 
threatened by any party or State in this Re- 
public, you have given me a supreme reason 
why an American Congress should refuse, 
with unutterable scorn, to listen to those who 
threaten, or to do any act whatever under the 
coercion of threats by any power on earth. 
With all my soul I despise your threat of 
civil war, come from what quarter or party it 
may. Brave men, certainly a brave nation, 
will do nothing under compulsion. We are 
intrusted with the work of obeying and de- 
fending the Constitution, I will not be de- 
terred from obeying it because somebody 
threatens to destroy it. I dismiss all that 
class of motives as unworthy of Americans. 

Ibid. 



FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 
A Valuable Book. 

341. The log-book of this voyage cannot 
be read too often. 

'TAe Currency Conflict,'' ■ Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 1876. 



FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 147 

The Fate of a Paper Currency. 

342. I for one am unwilling that my 
name sLall be linked to the fate of a paper 
currency. I believe that any party which 
commits itself to paper money will go down 
amid the general disaster, covered with the 
curses of a ruined people. 

Fublic Debts and Specie Payments, March 16, 1866. 
Sleight-of-Hand Finance. 

343. I believe they will, after a full hear- 
ing, discard all methods of paying their debts 
by sleight-of-hand, or by any scheme which 
crooked wisdom may devise. If public mo- 
rality did not protest against any such plan, 
enlightened public selfishness would refuse its 

sanction. House of Representatives, July 15, 1868. 

The Future of Finance. 

344. Let us be true to our trust a few 
years longer, and the next generation will be 
here with its seventy-five millions of popula- 
tion and its sixty billions of wealth. To them 
the debt that then remains will be a light 
burden. They will pay the last bond accord- 
ing to the letter and spirit of the contract, 
with the same sense of grateful duty with 
which they will pay the pensions of the few 



148 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

surviving soldiers of the great war for the 
Union. Ibid. 

Debt Questions. 

345. All the qnestions which spring out of 
the public debt, such as loans, bonds, taiifTs, 
internal taxation, banking and currency, pre- 
sent greater difficulties than usually come 
within the scope of American politics. They 
cannot be settled by force of numbers nor car- 
ried by assault, as an army storms the works 
of an enemy. Patient examination of facts, 
careful study of principles which do not al- 
wavs appear on the surface, and which in- 
volve the most difficult problems of j^olitical 
economy, are the weapons of this warfare. 

speech on Finance, May 15, 18G8. 

The "Way to Legislate. 

346. It would be dishonorable for Con- 
gress to legislate either for the debtor class or 
for the creditor class alone. We ought to 
legislate for the whole country. 

Speech Against Repealing the Resumption Act. 

The Perfidy of A Nation. 

347. The perfidy of one man, or of a mil- 
lion of men, is as nothing compared with the 
perfidy of a nation. 

House of Representatives, Feb., 1876. 



FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 149 

Financial Subjects. 

343. Men's first opinions are almost al- 
ways wrong in regard to them, as they are in 
regard to astronomy, and he who reads the 
truths that lie deepest, is in imminent danger 
of beincr tabooed for a madman. 

o 

Private Letter, Dec. 15, 1867. 

349. Financial subjects are nuts and clo- 
ver for demagogues. ma. 

Inflationists. 

350. In 1862, there may have been follow- 
ers of William Loundes and John Law among 
our people, and here and there a pliilosopher 
who dreamed of an ideal standard of value 
stripped of all the grossness of so coarse and 
vulgrir a substance as gold. But they dwelt 
apart in silence, and their opinions mride 
scarce a ripple on the current of public 

thought. Speech on the Currency, F^.b., 1876. 

Revenue Laws as Sign-Posts. 

351. If our Republic were blotted from 
the earth and from the memory of mankind, 
and if no record of its history survived, ex- 
cept a copy of our revenue laws and our ap- 
propriation bills for a single year, the political 



150 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

philosopher would be able from these mate- 
rials alone to reconstruct a large part of our 
history, and sketch with considerable accuracy 
the character and spirit of our revolutions. 

North American Review, June, 1877. 

An Uncertain Currency. 

352. An uncertain currency that goes up 
and down, hits the laborer, and hits him hard. 
It helps him last and hurts him first. 

Finance and Public Opinion. 

363. That man makes a vital mistake 
who judges truth in relation to financial af- 
fairs from the changing phases of public 
opinion. He might as well stand on the 
shore of the Bay of Fundy, and from the ebb 
and flow of a single tide attempt to determine 
the general level of the sea, as to stand upon 
this floor, and from the current of public 
opinion on any one debate, judge of the gen- 
eral level of the public mind. It is only 
when long spaces along the shore of the sea 
are taken into account that the grand level is 
found from which the heights and depths are 
measured. And it is only when long spaces 
of time are considered that we find at last 
that level of public opinion which we call the 
general judgment of mankind. 



FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 151 
An Uncertain Standard. 

354. An uncertain and fluctuating stand- 
ard is an evil whose magnitude is too vast for 
measurement. 

The Gold Exchange. 

355. The Gold Exchange and the Gold 
Clearing-House, of New York, will be remem- 
bered in history as the Germans remember 
the robber castles of the Rhine, whence the 
brigand chiefs levied black-mail upon every 
passer-by. 

Successful Resumption. 

356. Successful resumption will greatly 
aid in bringing into the murky sky of our 
politics, what the Signal Service people call 
" clearing weather." 

Bad Faith. 

357. Bad faith on the part of an individ- 
ual, a city, or even a State, is a small evil 
in comparison with the calamities which fol- 
low bad faith on the part of a sovereign gov- 
ernment. 

Confidence in Promises. 

358. In the complex and delicately-adr 



152 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

justed relations of modern society, confidence 
in promises lawfully made is the life-blood of 
trade and commerce. It is the vital air laboi 
breathes. It is the light which shines on the 
pathway of prosperity. 

Bad Faith. 

359. An act of bad faith on the part of a 
State or municipal corporation, like poison in 
the blood, will transmit its curse to succeeding 
generations. 

Three Reasons for Resumption. 

360. We are bound by three great reasons 
to maintain the resumption of specie pay- 
ments : First, because the sanctit}^ of the pub- 
lic faith requires it ; second, beciuse the ma- 
terial prosperity of the country demands it ; 
and third, because our future prosperity in- 
sists that agitation shall cease, and that the 
country shall find a safe and permanent basis 
of financial peace. 

The Men of 1862. 

361. The men of 1862 knew the dangers 
from sad experience in our history ; and, like 
Ulysses, lashed themselves to tlie mast of 
public credit when they embarked upon the 



FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 153 

stormy and boisterous sea of inflated paper 
money, that they might not be beguiled by 
the siren-song that would be sung to them 
when they were afloat on the wild waves. 

Financial Literature. 

362. Let the wild swarm of financial 
literature that has sprung into life within the 
last twelve years witness how widely and how 
far we have drifted. We have lost our old 
moorings, have throAvn overboard our old 
compass ; we sail by alien stars looking not 
for the haven, but are afloat on a harborless 
sea. 

Equality of Dollars. 

363. Let us have equalit}^ of dollars be- 
fore the law, so that the trinity of our polit- 
ical creed sliall be equal states, equal men, 
and equal dollars thioug^hout the Union. 
When these three are realized we shall have 
achieved the complete pacification of our 
country. 



154 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 



REVENUE. 

Revenue, a Motive Power. 

364. Revenue is not the friction of a gov- 
ernment, but ratlier its motive power. 

The Expenditure of Revenue. 

365. The expenditure of revenue forms 
the grand level from which all heights and 
depths of legislative action are measured. 

Corruption and Cash. 

366. There is scarcely a conceivable form 
of corruption or public wrong that does not 
at last present itself at the cashier's desk and 
demand money- The legislature, therefore, 
that stands at the cashier's desk and watches 
with its Argus eyes the demands for payment 
over tlie counter is most certain to see all the 
forms of public rascality. 

Financial Health. 

367. A steady and constant revenue 
dawn from sources that represent the pros- 
perity of the nation — a revenue that grows 
with the growth of national wealth and is so 
adjusted to the expenditures that a constant 



TRADE AND BUSINESS. 155 

and considerable surplus is annually left in 
the treasury above all the necessary current 
demands, a surplus that keeps the treasury 
strong, that holds it above the fear of sodden 
panic, that makes it impregnable against all 
private combinations, that makes it a terror 
to all stock jobbing and gold gambling — this 
is financial health. 



TRADE AND BUSINESS. 

The "Wants of Trade. 

368. Is there any man in America wise 
enough to measure the wants of trade and 
tell just how much currency is needed ? Who 
forgets the infinite difficulty to find a man 
witli brain enouo^h and resource enouo-h to 
feed an army and to clothe it and to house 
it ? Its house is of the rudest — only a piece 
of cloth ; its clothing is of the simplest, and 
its food is a definitely -prescribed ration. But 
it is considered worthy of the glory of one 
glorious life to be able to feed and clothe 
and house an army of a hundred thousand 
men. Now, fellow-citizens, suppose somebody 
should offer to take the contract of feeding, 
clothing, and housing Boston and its suburbs, 



156 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

including half a million of men. Remember 
that all nations arc placed under coulribution 
to supply the city of Boston : every clime 
sends its supplies ; every portion of our land, 
all our roads of transportation are looked to 
to supply the tables, liouses, and the cloth- 
ing of this community. Do you snp[)ose any 
man in the world is wise enough, is skillful 
enough to supply the wants of this 230])ula- 
tion, in a circle of twenty miles around Bos- 
ton ? Now multiply that by a hundred, and 
get the population of the United States. Is 
there any man in this world wise enough, is 
there any congress in the world wise enough, 
to measure the wants of forty-five millions of 
people and tell just what is needed for their 
supplies? No, fellow-citizens; but there is 
something behind legislation that does — does 
all so quietl}^ and so perfectly. Every man 
seeking his own interest, millions of men act- 
ing for themselves, acting under the great 
law of supply and demand, the laws of trade, 
feed Boston, feed the United States, clothe, 
house, and transport the nation and carry on 
all its mighty works in perfect harmony and 
with ease, because the higher law above legis- 
lation, — the law of demand and supply, — 
pervading and covering all, settles that great 



STATES RIGHTS. 357 

question, far above the wisdom of one man, 
or a thousand men to determine it. 

Faniuil Hull, 1873, 
The Business of the Country. 

369. Tlie business of the country is like 
the level of the ocean, from which all meas- 
urements are made of heights and depths, 
lliough tides and currents may for a time 
distui-b, and tempests vex and toss its sur- 
face, still, through calm and storm the grand 
level rules all its waves and lays its measur- 
ing hues on every shore. So the business of 
the country, which, in the aggregated de- 
niands of the people for exchange of values, 
marks the ebb and flow, the rise and fall of 
the currents of trade, and forms the base line 
from which to measure all our financial legis- 
lation, is the only safe rule by which the vol- 
ume of our-currency can be determined. 

House of Representatives, January 7, 1870. 



STATES RIGHTS. 
The Powers of Government. 

370. No more beautiful thought was em- 
bodied m the structure of our Republic than 



158 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

this : that onr fathers did so distribute the 
powers of government that no one power 
should be able to swallow, absorb, or destroy 
the others. 



The Character of the Republic. 

371. Nothing more aptly describes the 
character of our Republic than the solar sys- 
tem, launched into space by the hand of the 
Creator where the central sun is the great 
power around which revolve all the planets 
in their appointed orbits. But while the sun 
holds in the grasp of its attractive power the 
whole system and imparts its light and heat 
to all, yet each individual planet is under the 
sway of laws peculiar to itself. 



SLAVERY. 
The Remission of Slavery. 

372. I am inclined to believe that the sin 
of slaver}^ is one of which it may be said that 
without the shedding of blood there is no re- 
mission. Private Letter on the Outbreak of the War. 



An Alarming Truth. 

373. In the very crisis of our fate God 



SLAVER r. 159 

brought us face to face with the alarming 
truth, that we must lose our own freedom or 
grant it to the slave. 

House of Representatives, January 13, 1865. 

The Death of Slavery. 

374. We shall never know why slavery- 
dies so hard in this Republic and in this hall 
till we know why sin has such longevity and 
Satan is immortal. With marvelous tenacity 
of existence, it has outlived the expectations 
of its friends and the hopes of its enemies. It 
has been declared here and elsewhere to be in 
all the several stages of mortality, wounded, 
moribund, dead. The question was raised by 
my colleague [Mr. Cox] yesterday, whether it 
was indeed dead, or only in a troubled sleep. 
I know of no better illustration of its condi- 
tion than is found in Sallust's admirable his- 
tory of the great conspirator Catiline, who, 
when his final battle was fought and lost, his 
army broken and scattered, was found far in 
advance of his own troops, lying among the 
dead enemies of Rome, yet breathing a little, 
but exhibiting in his countenance all that fe- 
rocity of spirit which had characterized his 
life. So, sir, this body of slavery lies before 
us among the dead enemies of the republic, 



160 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

mortally wounded, impotent in its fiendish 
wickedness, but with its old ferocity of Icok, 
bearing tlio unmistakable marks of its infer- 
nal orij^in. 

House of R'prfsentatives. Constitutional Amendment to abolish, 
Slaver j/, Jan. 13, 18G5. 

The Victims of Slavery. ' 

375.. All along the coast of our political 
sea these victims of slavery lie like stranded 
wrecks, broken on the headlands of freedom. 

Ibid. 

A Great Political Change. 

376. Tlie elevation of the negro race 
from slavery to the full rights of citizenship 
is the most important political cliange we 
have known since the adoption of the Consti- 
tution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail 
to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our in- 
stitutions and people. It has freed us from 
the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. 
It has added immensely to the moral and in- 
dividual forces of our people. It has liberated 
the master as well as the slave from a relation 
which wronged and enfeebled both. ]t has 
surrendered to their own guardianship the 
manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and 
has opened to each one of them a career of 
freedom and usefulness. -It has given new in- 



THE WAR OF TEE REBELLION. IGl 

spiration to the power of self-help in both 
races by making hxbor more honorable to the 
one and more necessary to the other. The 
influence of this force will grow greater and 
bear rich fruit with the coming years. 

k Inaugural Address. 



THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 
The Soldier's Death. 

377. If silence is ever golden, it must be 
here, beside the graves of fifteen thousand 
men, whose lives were more significant than 
speech, and whose death was a poem, the 
music 'of which can never be sung. 

Decoration Day Oration, Arlington, May 30, 1868. 

The Character of the Change. 

378. It will not do to speak of the gigan- 
tic revolution through which we have lately 
passed as a thing to be adjusted and settled 
by a change in administration. It was cycli- 
cal, epochal, century-wide, and to be studied 
in its broad and grand perspective, a revolu- 
tion of even wider scope, so far as time is con- 
cerned, than the Revolution of 1776. 

11 



i62 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

The Strength of Men in Revolution. 

379. In such a revolution, men are like 
insects, that fret and toss in the storm, but 
are swept onward by the resistless movements 
of elements beyond their control. 

How it Should be Studied. 

380. I speak of this revolution not to 
praise the men who aided it, or to censure the 
men who resisted it, but as a force to be stud- 
ied, as a mandate to be obeyed. 

The Need of Vigilance. 

381. Those who carried the war for the 
Union and equal and universal freedom to a 
victorious issue can never safely relax their 
vigilance until the ideas for which they fought 
have become embodied in the enduring forms 
of individual and national life. 

The Peace to Be. 

382. Peace from the shock of battle, the 
higher Peace of our streets, our homes, of our 
equal rights w^e must secure by making the 
conquering ideas of the War everywhere dom- 
inant and permanent. 



THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 168 

The Spirit of the War. 

383. Think of the great elevating spirit 
of the war itself. We gathered the boys from 
all our farms, and shops, and stores, and 
schools, and homes, from all over the republic, 
and they went forth unknown to fame, but 
returned enrolled on the roster of immortal 
heroes. 

Speech before the Boys in Blue, New York, Aug. 6, 1S80. 

Our Temple. 

384. This arena of rebellion and slavery 
is a scene of violence and crime no longer ! 
This will be forever the sacred mountain of our 
Capital. Here is our temple ; its pavemenl 
is the sepulchre of heroic hearts ; its dome, 
the bending heaven; its altar candles, thp 
watching stars. 

Decoration Day, Arlington, May 30, 186^ 
A Lost Opportunity. 

385. A tenth of our national debt ex 
pended in public education fifty years ago 
would have saved us the blood and treasure of 

the late war. House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 

Our I'uture. 

386. I once entered a house in old Massa- 



164 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 

clmsetts where over its doors were two crossed 
swords. One was the sword carried by the 
grandfather of its owner on the field of Bun- 
ker Hill ; and the other was the sword car- 
ried by the English grandsire of the wife on 
the same field, and on the other side of the 
conflict. Under those crossed swords, in the 
restored harmony of domestic peace, lived a 
happy and contented and free family, under 
the light of our Republican liberties. I trust 
the time is not far distant when, under tho 
crossed swords and the locked shields of 
Americans, north and south, our people shall 
sleep in peace and rise in liberty, love, and 
harmony, under the union of our flag of the 

stars and stripes. Painexnlle, O., July 4, 1880. 

A Great Hope. 

387. I hope to see in all those states the 
men who fought and suffered for the truth, 
tilling the fields on which they pitched their 
tents. I hope to see them, like old Kaspar of 
Blenheim, on the summer evenings, with their 
children upon their knees, and pointing out 
the spot where brave men fell, and marble 
commemorating it. 

House of Representatives, Jan. 28, 1864. 



WAR. 165 

WAR. 

War's Answer. 

388. The reply to war is not words but 
swords. 

The End of "War. 

389. Battles are never the end of war ; 
for the (lead must be buried and the cost of 
the conflict must be paid. 

Wars without Ideas. 

390. Ideas are the great warriors of the 
world, and a war that has no ideas behind it 
is simply brutality. 

An Idea of a Battle. 

391. To him a battle was neither an 
earthquake, nor a volcano, nor a chaos of 
brave men and frantic horses involved in vast 
explosions of gunpowder. It was rather a 
calm, rational combination of force against 

force. • Oration on Geo. H. Tliomas. 

The Power of War. 

392. After the fire and blood of the bat- 
tle-fields have disappeared, nowhere does war 
show its destroying power so certainly and so 



1G6 GARFIELD^ S WORDS. 

relentlessly as in the columns winch repre- 
sent the taxes and expenditures of the nation. 

A "Weakness in Human Wisdom. 

393. The wit of man has never devised 
a method b}^ which the vast commercial and 
industrial interests of a nation can suffer the 
change from peace to war, and from war back 
to peace, without hardship and loss. 

Speech on the Pendleton Inflation Bill. 



How forcible are right words. 

Job vi. 24. 



INDEX. 



NO. OF SATING. PAGE 

232.... 105 



53 



A BSOLUTE power 

Achievement 

Achievement, the graduate's ; ■:^? ' * * \'^,. 

Adam., Samuel ''''^ip"- on 

Advancement, national ^^^ ^ 

Advancement, poverty no obstacle to 64 4a 

Advantages of communication, the 25 ib 

. . 205 96 

Age, a great 

Alarming truth, an 251 !.'.112 



.119 



Ambition, personal 

American citizen, the 264. 

American honor ^^'^ ^^ 

American people, rights of the 187 90 

Americans, intelligent ^"^ ^* 

An.wer, war's... 388.. ..165 

Architects of the future, the 117 63 

Armv of artisans, an 238 106 

Art.: 50 41 

Art, the spirit of ^ 51 41 

Art, true 50 41 

Artificial giant, an 330. . . .142 

Artisans, an army of 238 106 

Atlantic, the 199 9^ 

Atonement, the vicarious 286 129 



B 



AD faith 357. . . .152 

Battle of history, the 133 73 

Battle, an idea of a 391. .. .165 

Beginning, the, of education 9^ 55 



168 INDEX. 

NO. OF SATING. PAGE 

Behavior of the nation, the 260 116 

Bestowal of the wreath, the 82 52 

Bird-seed, a picker-up of 290 131 

Birth of parties 30G 136 

Birth of statistics 172 84 

Book, a vahiable 341 146 

Books 129 03 

Booth, Miss Almeda A 70 46 

Boundaries of freedom 233 105 

Boys, reverence for 3 29 

Bravery, national 195 92 

Bulwark of opposition, a 8 31 

Bums, Robert 74 48 

Business of the country, the 3G9 157 

/"^ALM, the deception of 37 38 

Campai<;n discipline 204 95 

Cause of alarm, a 242 108 

Catch-words, political 293. ... 132 

Cash, corruption and 306. . . .154 

Chance of the Republic, the 85 52 

Chance, the doctrine of 29 36 

Change, a great political 376 160 

Change, the character of the 3T8 161 

Chandler, Zachariah 72 47 

Character 41 

Character, early influences on 62 45 

Character, formation of strong 59 43 

Character, foundation of, the 56 42 

Character, knowledge of, the 55 42 

Character, iitfliience of, the 57 43 

Character, Lincoln's 69 46 

Character, moment, discovery of, the 63 45 

Character of the Republic 371 158 

Character, problems of, the 54 41 

Character, production of, the 52 41 

Character, rare gift of, a 58 43 

Characters, great 45 

Charity, lessons of 287. . . .129 



INDEX. 16^ 

NO. OF SATTXG. PAGE 

Children's education 112 Gl 

Christianity, tlie mandate of 24 34 

Cliristian's reply, a 14 32 

Ciimch and state 29G 132 

Citizen, tiie American '2G4 119 

Citizen, the power of the 248 112 

Citizenship 2JJ 1)7 

Civilization, a force in 167 83 

Civilization, a weapon of 142 76 

Coercion 282 128 

Cohesion of the Republic 118 

Colonists, the patrimony of the 215 99 

Cominj^ conflict, the 168 83 

Commanders, the 86 52 

Commerce 171 84 

Commerce and industry 84 

Commodity, tlie laborer's 38 38 

Common defense, the 223 102 

Communication, the advantages of 25 35 

Communists 18 33 

Conflict, the coming 168 83 

Confidence in promises 35S 151 

Confjressman Starkweather 73. 48 

Congress, the duty of 239 133 

Congress, the isolation of 301 134 

Congress, the Union and 225 102 

Congress, the vote of 334 143 

Congress, what Congress is 336, 337, 338 1 44 

Constitution, the 104 

Constitution, the idea of 231 104 

Corner-stone, the, of Garfield's creed 1 29 

Corruption and cash 3G6 lo4 

Country, business of the 3(i9 157 

Country-, the servant of his 183 90 

Course, the student's 100 50 

Covenant, the 227 103 

Creed, Garfield's, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 23 

Crime, treatment of 23 34 

Criticism, free 145 77 



170 INDEX. 

NO. OP SATIIfG. PACK 

Criticism, unjust 146 77 

Currency, an uncertain 352 150 

J) ANGER 16 33 

Danger, a, in education 101 57 

Danger, our safeguard from 120 64 

Danger, our sovereign's 273 122 

Dangers of suffrage, the 274 122 

Dead, the 27 35 

Death of parties and liberty 308 137 

Death of slavery 374 159 

Deatli, a soldier's 377 161 

Debt questions 345 148 

Deception of calm, the 37 38 

Declaration of Independence 222. . . .101 

Defense, the coninion 223. . . .102 

Demagogue, the 322 140 

Democratic principle, the , 297 133 

Democratic and Republican parties, the 314 138 

Descendants of great men 77 51 

Desire of men, the 39 38 

Despotism 333 143 

DifficuU problems 240. ... 107 

Disaster of vice, the 209 121 

Discipline, campaign 204 95 

Discipline, national 2l)0 94 

Discovery, the moment of 63 45 

Discovery, methods of 33 37 

Disfranchised peasantry 271 121 

Dishonor, too costly for the people 208 96 

Doctrine of chance, the 29 36 

Doctiine, permanent political 319 139 

Dogma of divine right, the 249. . . .112 

Dollar, the 294.. ..132 

Dollars, equality of 303. . . .153 

Dread. Garfield's If^ 31 

Duty of Congress 209. .. .133 

Duty, our 2()2 94 

Duty, the first, of the press 144 76 



INDEX. 



171 



Duty of the journalist, the. 
Duties, our 



NO. OF SATING. P.IGE 
149 78 

23!).... 107 



■pDUCATION 

Education, a danger in 101. 

Education, a finished HO- 

Education, and industry Hi- 
Education, a principle of 93- 

Education, beginning of, the 95. 

Education, best system of, the 105 

Education, graduates, their achievements in 99. 

Education, tlie importance of 106. 

Education, the mind in. 10-^ 



.55 
.57 
.60 
.Gl 
.55 
.55 
.59 
.56 
.59 
.58 



Education, new necessities of 97 55 

Education, outrages of. 94 55 

Education, the student's course in 100 56 

Education, tlie, of women H-i ^''^ 

Education, wrongly directed effort in 96 55 

Effort in public life, Garlield's 6 30 

Eloquence, a spray of 131 "0 

Eloquence, the power of ^"^ 

Emigration 278 127 

Empire, an 235 .... 106 

End of war, the 389. . . .165 

Equality of dollars 363. ... 153 

Ethics, the principle of 42 39 

Exchange, the Gold 355. ... 151 

Expenditure of revenue, the 365 154 



■pACIXG to the front 

Faith, bad 

Fame of the Fisherman, the 

Farmer, the 

Fate of a paper currency, the 

Fault of modern literature, a 

Federalists, the 

Feelings of a statesman, the 

Fellowship of the virtues, the 

Female suffrage 292. . . .131 



,258.... 115 
,357.... 151 

..45 40 

.188 90 

.342.... 147 

.124 05- 

.309 136 

134 

..34 37 



172 INDEX. 

NO. OF SATING. PAGE 

Feudalism, industrial 2-43 109 

Flight aiiainst gloom, the 11 31 

Final dtparture, the 303 .... 134 

Final reconciliation, the 203 95 

Finance and the public credit 146 

Finance and public opinion 353. . . .1.50 

Finance, sleii;ht-of-hand 343 147 

Financial health 3H7 154 

Financial literature 3G2 153 

Financial subjects 348, 349. . . .149 

Finished education, a 110 60 

Fisherman, the fanie of the 45 40 

Forced work in literature 127 67 

Forces, terrestrial 324. . . . 141 

Fools, the 30 36 

Foundation of character, tiie 57 43 

Formation of strong character 59 60 

Fountains of our strength 259. . . .116 

Free criticism 145 77 

Freedom 79 

Freedom's soul 156 80 

Freedom, the language of 158 89 

Freedom, obstacles to 159 80 

Freedom, what it is 160 81 

Front, facing to the 258 115 

Fruits of occasion, the 32 37 

Future, our 386. . . .163 

Future, the architects of the 117 63 

QEORGE H. THOMAS 65, 66, 67, 3D. .45, 36 

George Washington 220, 221. ... 101 

Germs of tiie Constitutio ', the 102 

Germs of our institutions 220 102 

Givin-, the idea of 102 57 

Gloom, safely from 12 ... .32 

Gloom, the fight against 11 31 

Glory of manliood, the 92. ... 54 

Glory of our institutions 240. . . .107 

God iu history 138 74 



INDEX. 173 

50. OF SATIXG. PAGE 

God, men and their 40 38 

Gold Excliaiij,'e, I lie obb. . . .151 

Golden thread of progress 180 88 

Good symbol, a 17 33 

Govcriimeiits, the management of 332 143 

Government, duly of, in education 115 62 

Government, our theory of 285 129 

Government, pijwers of 331. . . .142 

Governments, proportion in 329. . . .142 

Government.s and man 22 34 'f-tfCy\,**^ 

Graduate's achievements, the 99 56 ^r'St^ c-^vt 

Graduation, a condition of 113 61 

Great age, a 21)5 96 

Great ideas 122 65 

Great men 50 

Gieat men, de.scendants cf 77 50 

Great hope, a 387 164 

Great p<dilical change, a 376 160 

Great powers 151 78 

Great quality, a 217 100 

Greece, a story of 276 125 

Greek 98 56 

Growth 81 51 

JJAPPINESS, our 44 40 

Health, financial 367. .. .154 

Heroes 181 89 

History 73 

History, God in 1-38 74 

Hi-tory, the battle of 133 73 

History, the lesson of 137 74 

History, the lights of 13.1 75 

History, the rewriting of 135 73 

History, truth in 140 75 

History, what it is 1-34 73 

Historian's work, the 141 75 

Honor, American 193 92 

Honors 7*5 .50 

Hope, a great , 387 164 



174 INDEX. 

NO. OF SATING. PAGB 

Horace, an Ode from 130 68 

Hour, the need of the 2t)G 96 

House, the third 289.... 130 

How to study 107, 108 59 

Human wisdom, a weakness in 393 166 

TDEA of a battle 391 ... .165 

Idea of giving, the 102 57 

Ideal census, an 295 132 

Ideas 65 

Ideas great 122 65 

Ideas, immortal 307 136 

Ideas, the life of 121 65 

Ignorance in the voter 208 120 

Importance of education 106 59 

Independence, the Declaration of 222 101 

Independence in journalism I'i8 77 

Industrial feudalism 243. .. .109 

Industries, national 210 97 

Industry 170 84 

Industr}^, commerce and 8-i 

Industry, education and Ill 61 

Inflationists 350. . . .149 

Influences of character 57 43 

Influences, the early 62 45 

Inheritance, our 198 93 

Institutions, national 234 105 

Institutions, our 105 

Institutions, the glory of our 241. .. .107 

Institutions, understanding our 236 106 

Intelligent Americans '^7 40 

Intercourse 26 -^5 

Isolation of Congress, the 301 l^U 

Isolated place, an 302 . . . 134 



J 



OHN STUART MILL 71 47 

Jonrnalisni, independent 14^^ '7 

Journalist, the duty of the 119 78 

Judgment of leaders -283 128 



INDEX. 



175 



NO, 07 SAVING. PAGE 

TT-NOWLEDGE ^!'"jo 

Knowledge of character ^^ ^'■^ 

T ABORER'S commodity, the .38 38 

■^ Labor of the people, the -J7 J6 

Langua-e of freedom 158 bJ 

La^^ «"^ ^''^^'^ 1S2'".'.'..89 

Law, supreme.... ;:;..::i02 8L 

Law, the reign of 

Law, the, and the locomotive i^o- • • - °^ 

Law, our theory of [['m:.'...^! 

Laws, the • 28 

Leaders, the judgment of 183 ! ! . 89 

Legacy, our * 

Legislation • • • • • • ' • " * ' ^^ 

Legislator and statistics, the 328 " ill 

Legislator's study, a ••• 

Legislate, the way we -°^- • • ' ^^ 

Leisure, the value of 

Lesson of the monuments, the ••• '* 

Lessons of charity, the 28^- • • ^^^ 

Lessons of endurance, the 2<7 o 

Lessons of history, the ^'j^ ^"^ 

Liberty and peace ^^ 

Libertv's weakness. 'f ' 

Liberty, the safety of J^* ' ^ 

Liberty, the foundations of English 15 j »^ 

Liberties, a monument of J^l •' 

Life behind, the ^o?"" ?t 

Life of ideas, the 4\""vw 

Life of parties, the • ooV " * ' io2 

Life of tlie nation, the light and -t" ' ut 

Life, the nation's '^'^ ' 

Life, success in •" 

T . , ^ 49 40 

Light -j.^ 

Lignt and life of the nation, the ^-*- • • • '"^ 

Lights of history, the Qa8"*"l33 

Lights of practical science, the rI'" Tr 

Lincoln's character 6J. . * . .4b 



176 INDEX. 

KO. OF SATING. PAGR 

Lincoln's place 08 4G 

Lireraiiire C5 

Literature, tiiiaiitial 302 153 

Literature, f. rreil work in I'i." .57 

Literature, modern, a fault of 124 05 

Literature, the real spirit of 125 66 

Literature, the relations of art to 123 .65 

Lost opportunity, a 385 103 

Luck '. 79. ... 51 

Lying 21 34 

]\r.\JORITY, the will of the 220.... 103 

Maiiiigeuient of governments, the 332. . . .143 

Mandate of Christianity, the 24 34 

Man. government and 22 34 

Man men love, the 83 52 

Man, the portion of 41 39 

Manhood the glory of 92 54 

Martyrs of the [iress, the 143 76 

Massachusetts, Virginia and 228 103 

Measure of value, a 325 141 

^lemoir 7 

Menace, a 340 146 

Men and their God 40 38 

Men, great tT. 50 

Men of 1832, the 361.... 152 

Men in Revolution, the strength of 379 162 

Men, the desire of 39 38 

Men, towering 75 50 

Men who succeed , 78 51 

Methods of discovery 33 37 

Military science 291 131 

Millenniiun, a inissent 48 40 

Mill, J..hn Stuart .71 47 

Mind, the, in education 104 .58 

Mmoritv, the ; 326. . . .141 

Miss Booth 70 46 

Modern predictions 177 86 

Moment of discovery, the 63 46 



INDEX. 177 

NO. OF SATING. PAGE 

Monarchy vs. Republic 247 111 

Monument of our liberties, a 131 70 

Monument?, the lesson of the 122 

Monuments, Avhat they teach 275 122 

Most interesting object in the world, the 60 44 

Mystery of sorrow, a 36 37 

]S^ATIOX, the 113 

Nation, the behavior of the 2G0 116 

Nation, the history of the 254 114 

Nation, the perils of a 194 92 

Nation, purpose of the 253 113 

Nation, the supremacy of the 257. . . .115 

Nation's life, the 252 113 

National advancement 186 90 

National bravery 195 92 

National discipline 2('0 94 

National industries 210 97 

National institutions 234 105 

National passions 196 93 

National perpetuit}- 201 94 

National talent 212 97 

Necessities, the new, in education 97 55 

Need of the hour, the 206 92 

Need of vigilance, the 381 166 

Q EJECT, the most interesting in the world 60 44 

Obstacles to freedom 159 80 

Occasion, the fruits of 32 37 

Ode from Horace, an 130 68 

Opinion, the kingdom of 35 37 

Opportunity, a lost 385 163 

Opposition, a bulwark of 8 31 

Order of the universe 161 81 

Origin of the Republic, the .246 HI 

Our duty 202 94 

Our fut-.ire 386 163 

Our •■ai>i)iness 44 40 

Our iuheritance 198 93 

12 



178 INDEIL 

NO. or SATUfO. PAffS 

Our institutions 1(^5 

Our legacy 183 89 

Our national safety 272 121 

Our people 1 85 89 

Our success 244 109 

Our temple 384 163 

Our theory of government 285. . . .129 

Our theory of law 2:30. ... 104 

Outrages of education, the 94 55 

pAPER currency, the fate of a 342 ...147 

Partisanship 316 138 

Party amenities 317. . . .139 

Party governments 315. . . .138 

Party record 310 ... 137 

Party, the Republican 313 137 

Parties, Democratic and Republican 314 138 

Parties, the birth of 306 136 

Parties, the control of '. .-312. . . .137 

Parties, the death of, and liberty 308 136 

Parties, the life of 311 137 

Passion, national l-'6 93 

Patrimony of the colonists, the 215 99 

Peace, liberty and 211 97 

Peace to be, the 382 162 

Peasantry, disfranchised, a 271. . . .121 

People, dislionor too costly for the 208 i'S 

People of the Republic, the 261 1 1 7 

People, our 185 89 

People, railways and the 163 82 

People, the labor of the 197 93 

Pertidy of a nation, the 347. . . .148 

Perils of a nation, the 194 r2 

Permanent political doctrines 319, 320. . . .13'J 

Perpetuity, national 201 94 

Personal ambition 251 112 

Perversions of education, the. 109 ... .59 

Picker-up of bird-seed, a 290 131 

Place, an isolated 302 134 



INDEX. 179 

KO. OF SATrSG. PAGE 

Pluck 84 52 

Political catch-words 293 132 

Political issues 318 139 

Political training 288 130 

Portion of man, the 41 39 

Poverty 80 51 

Poverty no obstacle to success 64 45 

Power 78 

Power, absolute 332 1U5 

Power as a soldier 67 46 

Power, in the speech, the 28 36 

Power of eloquence, the 87 

Power of war 392. . . .165 

PoAvers, great 151 78 

Powers of government 331 ... . 142 

Powers of intellect, the 119 63 

Powers of the citizen, the 248. . . .112 

Powers, the exhibition of 150 78 

Powers, useful 207 96 

Predictions, modern 177 86 

Presidential fever, the 305 135 

Press, the 76 

Press, the first duty of the 144 76 

Press, the martyrs of the 143 76 

Press, the men of the 147 77 

Principle, a, of education 93 55 

Principle of Garfield's creed 2 29 

Principle, the democratic 297 133 

Principles of ethics, the 42 39 

Privileges of youth, the 54 

Privileges, two 91 55 

Problems, difficult 240 107 

Problems of character 54 41 

Progress, the golden thread of 180 88 

Promises, confidence in 358 .... 151 

Proportion 89 53 

Proportion in governments 329 142 

Purpose of literar\- production, the 128 67 

Purpose, the nation's 253. .. .113 



180 INDEX, 

VO. OP SATING. PAGE 

QUALITY, a great 217. . . .100 
Qualities of statesmanship, the 321 140 

Question of weight, a 1 IG 02 

Questions, unsettled 267 120 

T> ADICAL, a, not a fool 7 31 

Railroads 82 

llailroads and the people 1G3 82 

Railroads, the work of the ICG 83 

Railroads, value of 1G4 82 

Rare gift of character, a 58 43 

Real spirit of literature, the 125 G6 

Reconciliation, the final 203 95 

Reign of the law, the 1G2 81 

Relations of art and literature, the 123 G5 

Remission of slavery, the 372 158 

Reply, a Christian's I'i 32 

Repression and expression 256 .... 1 1 4 

Republic vs. Monarchy 247 111 

Republic, character of 371 158 

Republic, cohesion of the 118 

Republic, movement of the 284 128 

Republic, the chance of the 85 52 

Republic, the origin of the 246 111 

Republic, the stabihty of the 245. . . .110 

Republican party, the 313 137 

Resolution, a 17G 86 

Resumption, successful 350 151 

Resumption, three reasons for 360 152 

Revenue 1^'^ 

Revenue, a motive power 364 154 

Revenue, the expenditure of 365 154 

Rewriting of history, the 135 73 

Right of private judgment, the 184 89 

Right of the American people 187 90 

Robert Burns 74 48 

CACRIFICE for self-government, the 216 99 

Safeguard from danger, our 120 64 



INDEX. 181 

NO. OP SATI\G. PAGE 

Safety from f2:]oom 12 32 

Safety of liberty, the 154 79 

Safety, our national 272 121 

Safety, suffrage and 265. ... 120 

Scholarship, theological 46 40 

Science of statistics, the 178 86 

Scientific spirit, the 175 85 

Secession 279 127 

Self-government, the sacrifice for 216 99 

Servant of his country, the 189 90 

Shallowness of words, the 19 33 

Shores of life, the 9 31 

Shriveled time of life, the 4 30 

Sign-posts, revenue laws as 351. . . .149 

Simplicity of character, Geo. H. Thomas' 66 46 

Slavery 158 

Slavery, the death of 374 I59 

Slavery, the remission of 372 158 

Slavery, the victims of 375 160 

Sleight-of-hand finance 343 147 

Society 237, 262 . . 106, 117 

Soldier's death, the 377 161 

Solution, the value of a 169 83 

Soul, Freedom's 156 80 

Sound words 339 145 

Sovereignty 214 99 

Sovereign's danger, our 273 122 

Sovereign's power 20 34 

Spirit of art, the 51 41 

Spirit of the war, the 383 163 

Spirit, the food of the 153 79 

Spirit, the scientific 175 85 

Spray of eloquence, a 70 

Stability of the Republic, the 245 110 

Standard, an uncertain 354 151 

Starkweather, Congressman 73 48 

States' rights 157 

State, church and 296 132 

Statesmanship 140 



182 INDEX. 

NO. OF SATING. PAGE 

Statesmanship, special training for 323 140 

Statesmanship, the quaUties of 321 140 

Statistics 84 

Statistics, the birth of 172 84 

Statistics, -what they are 173 85 

Statistics, what they did 174 85 

Statistics, the legislature and 327 141 

Statistics, the science of 178 86 

Story of Greece, a 276 125 

Strength, the fountains of our 259 116 

Study, a legislator's 328 141 

Study, how to 107, 108 59 

Student's studies, the 118 63 

Succeed, the men who 78 51 

Success in life 51 

Success, our 244. . . .109 

Successful resumption 356. . . .151 

Suffrage and safety 2G5. . . .120 

Suffrage, female 292. ... 131 

Suffrage, the 120 

Suffrage, violation of the 266. . . .120 

Supremacy of the nation, the 257. . . .115 

Supreme law 182 89 

Symbol, a good 17 33 

System, the best, of education 105 59 

'P ALENT, native 212 97 

Talent's substitute 31 37 

Temple, our 384. ...163 

Tent, the, where to pitch it 53 41 

Terrestrial forces 324 141 

Territory 255 114 

Theory of government, our 285 129 

The press 76 

Third house, the 289 .... 130 

Thomas, George H 65, 66, 67 45 

Three reasons for resumption 360 152 

Towering men 75 50 

Trade and business 155 



INDEX. 183 

NO. OF SATING. PAGE 

Trade, the wants of 308 155 

Training, political 288 ... .130 

Training, special, for statesmen 323 140 

Translation of an ode from Horace 130 68 

Treasures of American souls 192 91 

Treatment of crime 23 3-i 

True art 50 41 

True literary man, the 126. ... 66 

Trust, the right 90 53 

Truth 79 

Truth, an alarming 373 ...158 

Truth in history 140 75 

Truth, the universality of 152 79 

UNCERTAIN currency, an 352. . . .150 

Uncertain standard, an 354. . . .151 

Understanding our institutions 236. . . .106 

Union and Congress, the 225. . . .102 

Union, voters of the 270. . . .121 

Universality of truth, the 152 79 

Universe, order in the 161 81 

Unsettled questions 267 120 

Uprightness 5 30 

yALUE, a measure of 325 ... .141 

Value of leisure, the 61 44 

Value of railroads, the 164 82 

Value of victory, the 43 39 

Vicarious atonement, the 286. . . .129 

Vice, the disaster of 269 121 

Victims of slavery, the 375 ...160 

Vigilance, the need of 381 162 

Virginia and Massachusetts 228 103 

Voluntary enterprise 191 91 

Voter, ignorance in the 208 120 

Voters of the Union, the 270 121 

Voxpopuli, vox Dei , 250. . . .112 

WANTS of trade, the 368. ...155 

War, how it should be studied 380 .... 162 



